Kathleen received a BFA in Printmaking from Carnegie Mellon University. 

After graduation, she did illustrations, graphics and courtroom drawings for an ABC-TV affiliate in Pittsburgh, then worked for an in-house design firm in Ohio. For many years, while raising her family, she ran her own graphic design business, but eventually felt the urge to return to her fine art roots. 

Since 2015, she has participated in dozens of exhibitions and juried plein air painting events, including Sedona Plein Air Festival Paint It, Annapolis, Artists on Location (Knoxville), Parrsboro International Plein Air Competition (Nova Scotia), Lighthouse and Bath County Plein Air. Her artwork has been accepted into the American Impressionist Society Small Works Show, several Ohio Plein Air Society juried museum exhibitions, National Oil Painters Wet Paint Competition and others. In August of 2019, was awarded an artist residency in the Olympic Peninsula. In January of 2020, she traveled to Cuba with 11 other artists to paint on location in Havana and Viñales.