About Me

I'm Kina Collins and I'm running for Congress

I was born and raised in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side. I come from a proud, union, working-class family.

My father was a factory worker, and my mother works as a crossing guard and certified nursing assistant. Growing up, I saw both the promise and the pain of our community. When I was a child, I witnessed the murder of someone I knew, and that moment changed my life. It showed me how deeply our neighborhoods are impacted by violence and how urgently we need change.

From that moment on, I committed myself to fighting for justice, safety, and opportunity for all of us.

After graduating from Chicago Public Schools, I attended  Louisiana State University, came back home, and dedicated my life to public service and community organizing. In 2017, I founded the Chicago Neighborhood Alliance to empower residents in violence-impacted neighborhoods to build civic power and take action to change their communities.

As a nationally recognized leader in the movement to end gun violence, I have worked to hold corporations accountable and push for solutions that treat gun violence as a public health crisis, not just a policing issue. As the Executive Director of One Aim Illinois, I led efforts to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for fueling the flow of illegal guns into our neighborhoods. I also had the honor of serving on the Biden-Harris transition team, helping to shape the national agenda for gun violence prevention.

In 2018, I co-authored and helped pass the Illinois Council on Women and Girls Act (Public Act 100-0913 / HB 5544), which created a statewide council to advise the Governor and legislature on issues affecting women and girls, including reproductive rights, gender equity, and economic opportunity. I was proud to serve as the council’s inaugural chair, and later worked with the Chicago City Clerk’s Office on the city’s “Status of Women & Girls” initiative.

I also served as Vice President of Women’s March Illinois, where I helped mobilize thousands around intersectional feminist issues and reproductive justice.

As Executive Director of the Democratizing Philanthropy Project, I worked nationally to help grassroots and frontline organizations build independent, sustainable funding so they could focus on what matters most: serving their communities, not answering to top-down donors.

I also served as a National Organizer with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), where I helped

train over 20,000 doctors and medical students to advocate for single-payer, universal healthcare. And during the 2019 Chicago aldermanic cycle, I helped found Brand New Council, a coalition that recruited, trained, and supported progressive candidates of color to run for City Council.

Today, I’m honored to serve as a Mayoral appointee on the City of Chicago’s first-ever Reparations Task Force, where I am helping advance policies for descendants of U.S. chattel slavery to promote truth, repair, and justice in our city.

I am running for Congress because I believe our district deserves bold, people-centered leadership that fights for working families, not corporate interests.

I know the challenges we face, gun violence, poverty, housing insecurity, unaffordable healthcare, and environmental injustice, because I’ve lived them.

My campaign is about bringing the voices of our communities to Washington and delivering real, transformative change.

When I go to Congress, I’ll bring the same spirit I’ve carried throughout my life: the spirit of organizing, the belief that people power can change everything, and the conviction that our government must work for all of us, not just the wealthy few.