Cathy began her collegiate work at UC Berkeley where she earned her B.A. (French, English, and Span- ish), elementary and secondary credential, and a MAT in French.  She began coaching with her husband Sandy Berman in the late 1950's at El Cerrito HS.  In 1978, CHSSA Hall of Famer, David Dansky, approached Cathy and asked her to replace him at Kennedy High School so that he could take a one-year sabbatical. At that time Kennedy High School was the leading NFL chapter in the nation. In August, 1981, she was hired by El Cerrito HS in English with Forensics as her adjunct duty.  She was honored by being elected District Teacher of the Year and Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year; an honor that she would receive a second time in 1993.  During her twenty years at El Cerrito, she would make a total of fourteen trips to Nationals, and her students would earn a third place in policy debate in 1999 and a first place in L.D. in 2002.

Catherine also served the speech community at the national level as a member of the San Francisco Bay NFL district committee and was district chairperson from 1996-2001. At the state level, Catherine became treasurer of the Golden Gate Speech Association in 1985. She also served multiple times as the league’s debate director and events director. From 1988- 1995 Catherine served on the California High School Speech Council.

She retired in January, 2002, as a three diamond NFL coach.  In 1995 both she and her husband, Sandy Berman, were inducted into the CHSSA Hall of Fame, the first couple to be so honored.

Lynette was not a speech or communications major in college. She attended Fresno State to study physical therapy and only dabbled in debate when she was in high school. When she landed her first teaching position at her alma mater, St. Vincent High School in Petaluma in 1984, she was assigned two sections of freshman speech. Relying on her own high school forensics experiences, she pulled off what she calls “a pretty convincing ‘humorous interp’ as a speech teacher.” Then the principal gave her the choice of coaching junior varsity girls’ basketball or forensics. She says that she was equally qualified for both jobs: She could dribble and she could talk. She opted for forensics, rationalizing that her tongue might hold out longer than her knees. She said it was the best decision of her professional career.

Seven years later, she matriculated to Analy High School in Sebastopol where coached speech and debate and taught English. In addition to her service to her school and students, Lynette has contributed a great deal to the California High School Speech Association especially in the area of curriculum.

As CHSSA Vice President of Curriculum for many years, she was successful in getting UC course approval for Rhetoric and Oral Interpretation--both courses continue to be offered by schools state-wide. Under her direction, the curriculum committee published, Speaking Across the Curriculum, a teacher's guide for infusing oral communication skills into a variety of subject areas. In addition, she has published articles in professional journals like California English and The English Journal. 

In addition to sharing her curriculum ideas through writing, Lynette also conducted teacher inservices and workshops at state and national conferences and at the Sonoma County Office of Education. Her seminars was included "Meeting the Demands of On-Demand Writing: coaching students for the SAT I and CAHSEE."

Upon her induction into the CHSSA Hall of Fame she wrote, “The students that have passed through my program have made the tedium and exhaustion of being an English teacher worth every red pencil; the coaches and colleagues that I’ve met along the way have kept me invigorated as an educator, and the opportunity to represent CHSSA as the Curriculum Chair for seven years was an honor that has continued to inspire me to publish and conduct workshops on curriculum.”