Jessica Collins, a 2021 BusinessWest "Women of Impact" awardee, has dedicated her career to collaborative efforts that build equitable communities and sustain programmatic, policy and infrastructure change that supports quality of life. Ms. Collins has served 10 years as Executive Director of the Public Health Institute of Western MA which leads regional assessment, evaluation, coalition convening and advocacy of initiatives that address health Inequities. She founded Live Well Springfield and recent Youth Mental Health Coalition. Ms. Collins was recently appointed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Community Behavioral Health Commission and served on Governor Baker’s Special Commission on Behavioral Health Promotion and Upstream Prevention in 2017; Ms. Collins served as the Co-Director of the BeHealthy Partnership, the ACO made up of Health New England, Baystate Health, and Caring Health Center (2018-2023) and serves on the MassHealth Social Service Integration Workgroup (2018-2025). Ms. Collins has been leading efforts to advance racial justice one of which includes founding the group that launched Equity in the 413 a regional initiative in 2022. She has been recognized in her region through the Healing Racism Institute Community Builder Award in 2023 and the Urban League of Springfield Inclusion Luminary Award this past March 2025. She served for eleven years and was President of the MA Public Health Association (2017-2019). Before moving to Western MA, Ms. Collins led the nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention effort "Shape Up Somerville: Eat Smart. Play Hard." and was the Director of the Somerville Community Health Agenda for Cambridge Health Alliance. Ms. Collins has a master’s degree in food policy from Tufts University and is a proud graduate of Wellesley College. She served as both a Jesuit Volunteer in Seattle, WA, working with people living with AIDS and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa. She has two teenagers; spent over ten years coaching youth basketball and was elected to her town’s Board of Health for seven years (2017- 2024). She is an avid believer that nothing is achieved alone – working together is the key to impact and societal transformation.

Who We Are