Jennifer Collins

Jennifer Collins (born 1965) is an American legal scholar serving as the 21st President of Rhodes College.

Collins was previously Judge James Noel Dean of the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University.

Collins graduated cum laude with a BA in History from Yale University in 1987.

She then enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude with a JD in 1991.

At Harvard, she was a notes editor for the Harvard Law Review, working under fellow student and law review president Barack Obama.

After graduating from Harvard, Collins clerked for the Honorable Dorothy Wright Nelson in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

After finishing her clerkship, Collins worked in private practice in Washington D.C. In 1993, she accepted a position as an attorney-adviser for the United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel.

A year later, she joined the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA).

In this role, she tried more than 30 criminal cases, many of them homicides.

Two of her cases garnered major media attention.

One involved Aundrey Burno, a teenager and convicted murderer who, before sentencing, told an HBO documentary crew that "I would kill again if I have to."

Collins used Burno's words to persuade the judge to grant a 70-year sentence.

In the other high-profile case, Collins successfully prosecuted serial killer Joseph Mesa Jr.

She remained at the United States Attorney's Office until 2002, returning briefly to private practice at Sidley Austin before transitioning to academia.

Collins joined the faculty at Wake Forest School of Law in 2003 to teach criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, and gender and law.

In 2010, she joined university administration as associate provost for academic and strategic initiatives.

She was promoted to vice provost in 2013.

In this capacity, she launched Wake Forest's LGBTQ+ Center and Women's Center.

In 2014, Collins left Winston-Salem to become Dean of the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University.

Collins was the first permanent female dean of SMU's law school.

Upon her departure in 2022, she was praised for improving the academic quality and diversity of the law school's students.

Collins was named the 21st President of Rhodes College in December 2021 and formally began her tenure in July 2022.

Collins is married to Adam Charnes, an appellate attorney.

They have three children.