
Jack Collins
Jack earned a degree in Political Science from Swarthmore College and a Master’s degree in Governmental Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Jack had a career in city management including an internship in Seward, AK; assistant city manager in Eugene, OR; city manager in Ontario, OR and Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA and culminating as Deputy Mayor for five years during the Royer administration in Seattle.
He then founded a private non-profit (Northwest Small Cities Services) and served for seventeen years as its sole employee. In very small cities, he provided management assistance and served as Interim City Manager in Snohomish and La Conner, WA. Jack later served for five years on the City of Seattle’s Board of Park Commissioners and for eight years on the Washington Park Arboretum and Botanical Garden Committee. In all of these jobs, in local government and in the non-profit sector, Jack wrote and consulted on a lot of government and foundation grants, an experience he hopes to rely on to benefit NEST.
After 58 years of marriage, his wife died of lung cancer in September, 2019. With hospice care, she was able to stay in the home in Northeast Seattle they had lived in for forty years. Jack saw firsthand the value of people staying in their homes and recognized this as a principal reason for NEST’s success. He joined the Board in 2021 and hopes to continue to serve as an active volunteer and to learn how to play pickleball.