Veteran Legislator and Social Justice Advocate Confirmed as Illinois Human Rights Commissioner
“It is an honor to take on this role,” said Jacqueline Collins. “When we embrace our differences and fight for human rights for all, we strengthen ourselves.”
Collins views justice and equity through an inclusive lens as evidenced by her body of work while serving the 16th District in Springfield as a State Senator and Assistant Majority Leader. She forged paths of change as a member of the Governor’s Racial Profiling Task Force, the Human Trafficking Task Force and as Chairperson of the Criminal Law and Financial Institutions Committees. Her major legislative accomplishments include making Illinois the first in the Midwest to ban “ghost guns”; the historic Predatory Loan Prevention and Payday Loan Reform Act; the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act; the Mortgage Rescue Fraud Act; and the landmark Sudan Divestment Act.
In recognition of more than two decades of legislative leadership, Senator Collins has been awarded the Gale Cincotta Visionary Award by Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS), the Outstanding Public Service Award by the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC), the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson Faith and Politics Award from RainbowPUSH, the Scheinfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement by Woodstock Institute and numerous other awards.
Long before she was elected to public office, Collins was an Emmy nominated journalist for CBS-Chicago covering breaking news, elections, and special projects. But it was her keen insight for how government policies impact communities that helped to shape the station’s storytelling in a meaningful way; and inspired Collins to seek out, and land, civic based positions that would take her far—on a fact-finding mission to Central America—and near—to Washington, D.C. as a legislative fellow for the then honorable Senator Hillary R. Clinton.
Collins majored in journalism at Northwestern University, holds a Master of Science from Spertus College, a MPA from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Chicago School of Law.
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