Columbia, South Carolina
MARY MARTHA GREENE - AUTHOR, CONSULTANT, LOCAL EDUCATOR
Mary Martha is an award-winning cook. (Okay, so the award was in ninth grade for baking French Napoleon pastries for State Foreign Language Day, but it was first place, and she still has the trophy!) After this stunning victory, she dreamed of a culinary, or at least creative,
career.
Her dreams were waylaid by her family court judge father her freshman year of college, when she came home for Christmas break, and he informed her that she’d be reporting for duty as a page at the South Carolina State House in January. That led to a career in government relations and politics, including serving on the staff of Governor (and, later, US Secretary of Education) Richard W. Riley, lobbying, political action, business development, and consulting.
Throughout her career, Mary Martha has shared her love of cooking, baking, and entertaining to aid her in making friends and influencing people in the legislative, political, and fundraising arenas. She has also used these skills to help her clients with business development,
including running hospitality suites at conferences, sporting events, and a skybox on the eighteenth green for the PGA-Heritage Golf Tournament on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Since the publication of her first book, The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All by the University of South Carolina Press, Mary Martha has been featured on Cookbooks with Virginia with Chef Virginia Willis; appeared with Chef Jacques Pépin at the Amelia Island Book Festival’s Celebrity Author Luncheon; and interviewed her treasured friend the late Mrs. Emily Meggett, the New York Times–bestselling author of Gullah Geechee Home Cooking at the Pat Conroy Literary Center Lowcountry Book Club weekend.
She has also been featured in cooking demonstrations at the Southern Legislative Conference, in addition to many in-store events, and teaches cooking lessons and classes on how to preserve family stories and recipes through food.
Mary also volunteers with homeless and at-risk youths to teach them cooking skills in preparation for when they find permanent housing.
Mary Martha divides her time between her hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, and Columbia, the state capital, where she is a government relations consultant.