After college, she landed a life changing volunteer position as a social worker in Belfast, Northern Ireland. There she spent over a year walking the troubled neighborhoods and helping mend some of its broken lives.

Kathleen began her MFA in Photography at VCU in 1997. From May, 1999 to December, 2000, Kathleen and her husband Henry traveled in Europe by van. They created a travelogue website Leafpile which mainly focuses on their year spent living with a peasant family in Maramureş, northern Romania. 

For the academic year of 2001/2002, Kathleen taught photography at VCU and Ithaca College. On the strength of her Romanian Photo Documentary Work, Kathleen was awarded  Fulbright and IREX grants for 2002-2003. During that time she continued her documentary fieldwork and taught photography at the University of Art in Cluj Napoca. 

She is now living in Los Angeles and teaches photography at several colleges in the LA area.