Jim Greene graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Penn State University and subsequently received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry where his awards included The Walle J.H. Nauta Neurosciences Award, The Robert Joynt Prize in Clinical Neurology, and selection to Alpha Omega Alpha. After being selected Chief Resident of Neurology at Emory University and completing a movement disorders fellowship, he was appointed to his current position on the Emory faculty as Assistant Professor of Neurology in 2005.

From the beginning of his graduate training in Tim Greenamyre's laboratory in 1992 to the present, Dr. Greene's research has focused on determining mechanisms of nerve cell death in Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders with the ultimate goal of preventing it. During his graduate school career, he defined mechanisms of secondary excitotoxicity related to mitochondrial dysfunction particularly relevant to Huntington's disease. His postdoctoral work with Ray Dingledine characterized the transcriptional neuroanatomy of rat midbrain dopamine neurons as a foundation for his further study of selective neuronal vulnerability. He currently holds a prestigious George C. Cotzias MD Memorial Fellowship from the American Parkinson Disease Association.