In August of 2005, Dr. Collins was appointed to serve as Director for CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Prior to this assignment, she served for one year as the Acting Director for the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. Dr. Collins joined CDC in the Division of Adolescent Health and has held leadership roles in that Division as well as the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. Her current role as Center Director follows four years of service as Deputy Director for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Dr. Collins has a long standing commitment to adolescent health and her interests span research, program, and policy issues. Much of her work has focused on the surveillance of adolescent health-risk behaviors and the development and evaluation of school and media-based programs to prevent tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and sexual risk behaviors among youth.

Dr. Collins earned her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from San Diego State University and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Stanford University. Before joining CDC, she taught measurement and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and was Director of Training for Education, Training, and Research Associates in Santa Cruz, CA.