Ms. Combs Greene, daughter of Thalma Hooper Combs and Cecil Cordell Combs, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Los Angeles High School and graduated in 1972. She received her A.B. degree in politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1976, and her Juris Doctorate in 1979 from Howard University School of Law.

Ms. Combs Greene began her legal career in the General Counsel’s Office of the Federal Trade Commission. In 1981, she joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia as an Assistant United States Attorney, where she served for approximately six years. During her tenure, she rotated through the appellate, misdemeanor, grand jury, and felony sections. She also served in the then Felony One section where she tried first degree murder and rape cases and was then promoted to the position of Deputy Chief of the Felony Trial Section.

In 1987, Ms. Combs Greene joined the firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk and Rabkin in San Francisco, California, where she practiced commercial civil litigation. Returning to the District of Columbia after her marriage to Dr. Peter Greene, a native Washingtonian, she joined the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice where she investigated and tried white collar criminal matters. In 1993, she was promoted to Senior Counsel of the Fraud Section.

In December 1994, Ms. Combs Greene again joined the United States Attorney’s Office as Assistant Director of Training. In 1996, she was promoted to Director of Training where she developed and coordinated that office’s training programs for all Assistant United States Attorneys as well as support staff.

In 1998, the new United States Attorney, Wilma Lewis, appointed her to the position of Special Counsel to the United States Attorney. Ms. Combs Greene serves as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches the Georgetown NITA faculty and has taught at the Harvard Law School Advocacy Program.

Ms. Combs Greene is a member of the Charlotte E. Ray Inn of Court, the Greater Washington Area Chapter of the National Bar Association, and the Washington Bar Association. While she was at the United States Attorney’s Office, Ms. Combs Greene was a volunteer tutor in the office’s program with Amidon Elementary School.