 She is the daughter of John W. Griffin, a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm, and Carolyn J. Griffin, the producing director of Metrostage, a theater in Alexandria, Virginia.A 1992 graduate of Harvard University, Griffin has a bachelor's degree in comparative politics.Griffin initially reported for a newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she covered Nelson Mandela's release from imprisonment and other events in South Africa's transition away from apartheid.