Lisa Macbride was born and raised in New York City. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1980 with honors in painting. She has received numerous grants and awards, among them the Vogelstein Foundation Grant, a grant from the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. She received a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant and was chosen as one the exhibiting artists in the Commission's "Investing In Dreams" project which was on display at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT.

In February-March 1999, Macbride had a solo exhibition of her watercolors at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (ICPNA) in Lima, Peru, at the invitation of the Cultural Ministry of that country. Macbride's work is in the collections of ICPNA, New York University and Bellevue Hospital for which she was commissioned. Lisa Macbride is on the faculty of Tunxis Community Technical College in Farmington, CT. She resides in West Hartford, CT with her husband, composer David Macbride, and their two children.