Mississippi native Jennifer Riley Collins serves as the Delta Regional Authority Chief Administrative Officer. Riley Collins, who formally served as the Owner and Principal Consultant at J Riley Collins Consulting, LLC, started her role in June 2022.
Riley Collins is a 32 year military veteran and retired from the United States Army in 2017 at the rank of Colonel. She honorably and with distinction served as a Military Intelligence Officer in various assignments, twice serving as a Commander at the Company and then at the Battalion level. She served as the Command Inspector General at a power projection platform during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and her last assignment was at the Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs at the Pentagon.
Riley Collins is a graduate of Alcorn State University, and earned a Masters of Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Central Texas. She holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Mississippi College School of Law and has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Alcorn State University and the Mississippi Institute of Higher Learning.
She is a Higher Heights Executive Leadership Fellow, a W.K. Kellogg Community Network Leadership Fellow, a graduate of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s Advocacy and Campaign Training program, and an Excellence in Action Trainer certified by the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy. She is a member of several organizations including the Mississippi Bar Association, the Magnolia Bar Association, Mississippi Women Lawyers Association, the National Bar Association, the NBA Women Lawyers Division, Jackson Revival Center Church, Jackson, MS (serves as Legal Ministry Leader), Leadership Jackson, Women for Progress of MS where she serves as Chair of the WFP Political Action Committee, the Federation of Democratic Women, AAUW, Win With Black Women and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She serves as the Beta Delta Omega Chapter of AKA Connections and Social Action Committee Co-Chair.
