Rhea L. Combs completed her PhD from Emory University in 2009 in American Studies with concentrations in film history, African American cultural production and Gender Studies. Her dissertation "Exceeding the Frame: Documentary Filmmaker Marlon T. Riggs as Cultural Agitator" is an intellectual biography of the late documentary artist. She completed her Masters from Cornell and her B.A. from Howard University. Her commitment to social justice, the arts, and education are reflected in her writings, professional background, and community engagement projects.

Ms. Combs has produced programs and film festivals both nationally and internationally, namely at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Emory University (Atlanta), Spelman College (Atlanta) and Columbia College (Chicago), among others. She has worked in higher education as both a teacher and administrator, teaching courses on Visual Culture, African American Cultural Production, and Third World Cinema. Combs is the recipient of several national awards and honors, including a Rockefeller-Emory University Fellowship in Cultural History, an American Association of University Women Award, and a two-time Ford Foundation Minority Dissertation Fellowship (Honorable Mention).