Deborah was born in 1963, in DeLand, Florida. Deborah has also lived in Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Virginia; Alabama; and Tallahassee, Florida. Deborah's family has lived in Jacksonville, and the Northeast Florida area since before the civil war. Deborah is married to her law partner, Steven P. Combs and they have two children. Deborah graduated from Wolfson High School in Jacksonville in 1981, after which she attended her first year of college at Lynchburg College in Virginia, where she was a Montgomery Scholar and was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma Academic Honor Society. After graduating with a degree in Studio Art from Florida State University in 1985, Deborah worked in advertising and as a graphic artist until she began attending law school in 1988. In 1991, Deborah received her Juris Doctor, with high honors, from the Florida State University College of Law (graduating in the top 10% of her class).