Anna Calluori Holcombe was born in Newark, New Jersey, USA of Italian immigrant parents.  She graduated cum laude with a BA in art education from Montclair State University in 1974. She received her MFA in ceramics from Louisiana State University in 1977. Teaching in higher education since 1978, her first position was at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, then at State University of New York at Brockport. In 1994, she was appointed Head of the Art Department at Kansas State University and served in that position for 6 years.  From 2007 – 2010, she served as Director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Florida, then taught for the next 12 years and is currently a Professor Emeritus.

Calluori Holcombe exhibits internationally, having work in shows in Turkey, Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, South Korea, China and Australia.  She was awarded the Rotary Gold Medal for the 46th International Exhibition, Faenza, Italy in 1989. Her work is represented in numerous international journals such as Ceramics Technical, New Ceramics and Ceramica.

In 1997, she was honored as a Fellow of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for her accomplishments as President.  She is an elected member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 2002.  She was awarded a Fulbright to Turkey in 2013 where she taught at Anadolu University for a semester.