Jeff Collins grew up near Ithaca and attended Cornell University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. After college, he moved to the Boston area where he worked as a developer, project manager, and group manager developing Unix-based operating systems. In 1992, he moved to Atlanta where he started a company that developed an instant, online personal and business credit check service that was used by Bell South, T-Mobile, and others. In 2000, he sold the business.

Mr. Collins moved to Woodstock in 1999 with his wife and daughter.  After selling his company, he worked with his wife and others to start the Hudson Valley Sudbury School (now the Zena Democratic School). He worked at the school full-time until 2012. After the 2016 election, he started to get involved in politics. He is currently the co-chair of the Woodstock Democratic Committee, the First Vice Chair of the Ulster County Democratic Committee, and a member of the New York State Democratic Committee.

In 2020, Mr. Collins became a member of the Woodstock Library Board of Trustees and in January 2021 he became the President of the Board of Trustees. He worked with the other members of the board to develop a plan to move the Woodstock Library out of its current building to a new building which would allow the library to better accomplish their mission. In April 2022, the Town of Woodstock residents voted to approve a bond that will allow the Woodstock Library to acquire, renovate and move to their new facility. This culminates a 20+ year effort to find a solution to the library’s inadequate facility.

In 2021, Mr. Collins volunteered to be on the Woodstock Housing Oversight Taskforce. The mission of the task force was to update the Town of Woodstock’s Zoning Code to be more inclusionary and to enable and encourage more affordable housing.

In 2023, Mr. Collins was elected to the Ulster County Legislature, District 23.