Women Who Inspire: Catherine Leung

This story is part of Notre Dame Global's series titled "Women Who Inspire."

Catherine Leung didn’t always see herself in education. Growing up in Hong Kong, the financial hub of Asia, she planned to follow in her banker father’s footsteps. And for a time, she did. After going to business school at the University of Southern California, she earned a master’s in accounting and spent years working at financial powerhouses such as Deloitte, HSBC, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch.

Then, an opportunity came to work for her alma mater. She’d stayed connected with USC mainly on a volunteer basis, offering her connections and network in Hong Kong so they could build up their Asia presence. The job would involve much of the same work—only this time with a paycheck to accompany it. It’d also give her a chance to move back to Hong Kong from Los Angeles, so she took the job.

Fast forward 12 years, and she’s still creating alumni/parents networks and building partnerships in Asia, having found her true calling in higher education. Only now, she’s doing it as the director of Notre Dame Hong Kong.

After spending over a decade building up USC’s global offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, a Notre Dame parent referred her to Jonathan Noble, who was the founding director of the University’s Beijing location. Notre Dame wanted to expand their presence in China, and Catherine was the perfect person for the job. In 2014, she helped establish Notre Dame Hong Kong. Since then she organized the first global forum, built up the study abroad programs, established partnerships in and beyond Hong Kong, and founded the Notre Dame Parent Associations in Hong Kong, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, South China and Wuhan.

Catherine admits that the work she does takes “a special personality” to do it. It’s work days that bleed into evenings. It’s seeking out and connecting with alumni, parents and prospective families while on vacation, just “in case the University needs to do something in South East Asia.” It’s hosting dinners and gatherings for students in your family home. It’s opening yourself up far beyond what a typical 9-5 job asks, something Catherine understands well and embraces.

Not to mention, when you’re a team of one, you have to learn to rely on others. But that’s one of the benefits of cultivating meaningful relationships. You have people you can call on when you need help. For Catherine, the Notre Dame parents in Hong Kong that she’s gathered into community through the parent associations have been invaluable. “I cannot manage all this by myself, so I motivate the parents,” she says, “It's all about how you build a relationship with them.” She gives an example of how she reached out to a parent for help finding a venue for a new student event, and they quickly used their connections to find a private club location. She’s also leaned on alumni when traveling to locations around Asia where Notre Dame doesn’t have offices to get their support with planning events or creating opportunities for students participating in Global Professional Experience or Global Research Experience programs.

Ironically, while Catherine didn’t end up following in her dad’s footsteps, she did follow in her mother’s. Her mom spent years doing education-related volunteer work, and she actually founded the first Parent-Teacher association in Hong Kong. She was also on the board of numerous alumni clubs. And everything she did, she did as a volunteer. Catherine admits that when she was young, she didn’t always see the value in her mother’s work. After all, how productive could it be if she wasn’t getting paid for it? “Now I know,” she says, over twenty years into her career in higher education. “Every day you wake up, and you still want to go to work. You don't feel it is work. You feel this is part of you.” That’s what this job is to Catherine. It’s much more than a paycheck—it’s a passion.

Looking back at her own journey to getting where she is now, Catherine has some words of wisdom for students. “At the beginning, try different things,” she encourages. But ultimately, she says, having a passion for what you’re doing is the key to happiness and longevity in a career. Catherine is fueled by her work because it ties into an important value of hers: service. The work she does supporting students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents fulfills and motivates her, and she sees that sentiment mirrored in others at the University.

“Service, supporting someone in need, has always been a part of me,” she shares. “At Notre Dame, you really feel that everybody is doing it….Service becomes part of your life.” That’s the reason she came to Notre Dame in 2014, and that’s what’s driven her to build successful, meaningful connections over the last 12 years. Much like the Holy Cross priests who founded the University, Catherine has a heart of service. And she’s using it to expand and strengthen Notre Dame’s global presence in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and wherever her travels take her.

Originally published by Jessie Carson at global.nd.edu on March 30, 2026.