Katerina Sakellaropoulou was born in Thessaloniki in 1956.
She is a graduate of the Arsakeio School and has earned a degree from the University of Athens Law School (1978).
She was appointed to the Council of State, following a competitive examination, as an Assistant Judge in 1982 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Councilor in 1988 and to the rank of Councilor in 2000. She served as Associate Councilor in the Third Chamber and as Councilor in the Fifth Chamber of the Court.
During her sabbatical leave (1987-1988) she attended postgraduate courses in public law in France at the University Paris II.
In 2015 she was promoted to Vice-President and served in the Third Chamber. In 2018, she was appointed the first woman President of the Court, a position she held until February 2020.
She was President of the Association of Judges of the Council of State (1993-1995 and 2000-2001) and President of the Society of Environmental Law (2015-2019). She taught for several years at the National School of Judiciary.
On 22 January 2020, she was elected by the Greek Parliament as the first woman President of the Hellenic Republic and took office on 13 March.
She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2021), the Department of Environment of the Ionian University (2022) and the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the School of Economics and Political Sciences of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2022).
She has authored a number of articles, mainly on environmental and urban development law, gender equality, protection of individual rights and the establishment of the rule of law.