Dame Catherine Healy is a former teacher and sex worker, and a co founder of Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective in 1987. She has advocated for the decriminalisation of prostitution which was achieved in 2003, making New Zealand the first country to introduce such ground breaking legislation. She is frequently called upon to provide advice internationally, and participated in a debate at the Oxford Union in 2010. She is a co-editor of Taking the Crime out of Sex Work (Abel, Fitzgerald, Healy, 2010 Policy Press).