Debra Vaughan-Massey graduated from Manchester Polytechnic with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology. She initially worked for Burton Group/Arcadia before moving on to investigate compliance issues in the North West.

Debra joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1997 where she qualified as a Practitioner of Internal Audit. She was made Senior Associate in Public Sector Internal Audit in 1999, working nationally. While at PricewaterhouseCoopers Debra specialised in audit of European Regional Development Funds, but also worked for further and higher education establishments, government organisations and health authority.

After a year working as a freelance investigation officer, Debra took a permanent role with the Ombudsman Services in 2005. In 2006 she was the lead Investigation Officer on energy cases, quickly progressing to Senior Investigation Officer. In 2009 Debra was promoted to Assistant Ombudsman.