A former journalist and Emmy award-nominated editor at CBS-TV, Senator Collins has used her experience and communication skills in support of a progressive agenda to create economic and social welfare policies that reduce inequality, expand opportunity and strengthen communities.
A recipient of the prestigious Scheinfeld Award from the Woodstock Institute in recognition of her lifetime achievement in promoting economic justice, Collins has used her role on the Senate Financial Institutions Committee to ensure the passage of legislation that protects Illinois consumers and their families. She has played a key role in addressing predatory lending and high foreclosure rates in Chicago through legislation that protects homebuyers and homeowners with subprime mortgages.
For her work on financial literacy, Collins received the Illinois Credit Union League’s 2009 Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award. Her numerous other honors include the Auburn Gresham Neighborhood Hero Award from Neighborhood Housing Service, a Lifetime Achievement Award for commitment to financial issues from the Illinois state treasurer and the Blue Bow Award from Children’s Home + Aid for promoting policies that prevent child abuse.
Her major legislative accomplishments include making Illinois the first in the Midwest to ban “ghost guns”, the historic Predatory Loan Prevention Act and the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act, the Mortgage Rescue Fraud Act, the landmark Sudan Divestment Act and the 2005 Payday Loan Reform Act. Senator Collins is the chair of the Senate Criminal Law Committee and serves on the Financial Institutions and Transportation Committees.
Born in McComb, Miss., Collins moved as a child to the South Side neighborhood of Englewood. She majored in journalism at Northwestern University and is a graduate of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Divinity School. She also holds a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
