Judge Collins was selected as a U. S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri beginning on December 1, 2013. Prior to that, she worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in St. Louis, specializing in human trafficking prosecutions, for the last three years of her nearly ten year-tenure as a federal prosecutor. Judge Collins serves on several District Court committees, including co-chair of the Community Outreach Committee and member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. She is also a presiding judge over the Janis C. Good Mental Health Court.

Judge Collins also serves the federal judiciary at a national level after re-appointment by Chief Justice John G. Roberts to the Federal Judicial Center’s Magistrate Judge Education Advisory Committee for a three-year term until April 2025. The six-member committee designs national workshops and presents programs to the nation’s magistrate judges. Additionally, she was elected to the board of the Federal Magistrate Judge’s Association as 8th Circuit Director from 2016 to 2019.

Judge Collins began her legal career in Saint Louis in private practice with concentrations in commercial litigation and employment law and client counseling. She has taught as an adjunct professor teaching civil and criminal law and procedure to undergraduates and graduate students at Webster University in the Legal Studies Department in Saint Louis and at Webster’s Leiden
campus in the Netherlands.