Catherine Woollard

Brussels School of Governance, Free University of Brussels (VUB)

Professional experience

Catherine Woollard is Adjunct Professor of law at the Brussels School of Governance, VUB, where she teaches courses on international and European asylum and migration law.

Between 2016 and 2025, she served as Director of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a pan-European alliance of more than 100 organisations across 40 European countries working on asylum issues. With a strong focus on the legal foundations of asylum policy and practice, ECRE’s work encompasses research, advocacy, media work and pursuing legal cases before national and European courts.

Woollard is frequently invited to give presentations and comment in the international media on asylum and migration issues.