Born in 1960, Kathryn Clarke Albright was educated in Virginia. Albright began studying architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1978, and graduated with her Bachelor of Architecture in 1982. Shortly after her graduation in 1982, Albright joined San Francisco-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). During the time she spent at the firm she worked on a number of commercial and urban planning projects until 1986, when she was hired as a Senior Designer at another San Francisco firm, Daniel Solomon & Associates (later Solomon, In.c). After three years of working at the firm she rose to the level of principal in 1989, and she would remain at the firm as a Principal Architect until 1993. In early 1993, she applied and was accepted at Harvard Unniversity's Graduate School of Design. Following her M. Arch., she returned to Virginia to work at Virginia Tech.

In 1995, Albright became licensed in the State of Virginia and started working as a Principal Architect alongside her academic and architecture colleague Donna Dunay at Dunay + Albright Architects. The firm focused on commercial, retail, planning, education, and single-family residential projects in southern Virginia. Albright would work with Dunay until 2001 when she started her own practice, Kathryn Albright Design.

Over the past 20 years, Kathryn Clarke Albright has continued to teach at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture, and still serves as a consultant for several Chicago-based firms, including DeStefano + Partners and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Her research interests include urban design and community planning, communal gathering places, and locally-grown food.

Throughout her career Albright has been a member of the national professional organization American Institute of Architects (AIA) and she is a current member of the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Virginia Society. She has also served as a chair for many professional and public committees including for the Town of Blacksburg, the AIA, Harvard Alumni Council, Norwich University Steering Committee, and many Virginia Tech committees.

She has written two books on farmers markets, including Blacksburg Farmers Market: An Archive (2010), and Exploring the Architecture of Place in America's Farmers Markets (2020).