Her professional career is in
psychology, but her public profile has been chiefly through her church work. She was Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh 1973–1974, then lecturer in psychology at the
University of Lancaster 1974–1976 and at the University of Edinburgh 1977–1985. She is the author of two publications:
Child Language (1981) and
The Miraculous Everyday (2005). She served as Convener of the Committee on Church and Nation of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1996–2000, as well as Session Clerk at
Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. She was involved in building
ecumenical relations, and was a member of the Central Committee of the
Conference of European Churches (CEC) 2003-2009 (and also moderated CEC's Assembly held in
Lyon,
France, in July 2009). She played a key role in
Action of Churches Together in Scotland. In 2004 she was elected
Moderator of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland and was the first woman to be elected to that post. In 2016, she became only the third person to receive the Scottish Public Service Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a founding board member of the
Palestine Festival of Literature. Since 2007 she has been Convener of the
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. In 2018 she became General Secretary of
The Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which she has been a Fellow (FRSE) since 2008. ==Artistic recognition==