• Office Sought: Senator, Maine
• Birth Date: Dec. 7, 1952
• Occupation: Businesswoman
• Religion: Catholic
• Web site: http://collins.senate.gov/public/

Education

St. Lawrence University, BA

Susan M. Collins was born in Caribou, Maine, and resides in Bangor. She received a bachelor's degree in government and graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., in 1975.

Collins comes from a family with a long and varied background in state politics. Her father, Donald Collins, served in the state Senate and her late uncle, Samuel Collins, served in a state Senate leadership post before serving in the state Supreme Court. Susan Collins' mother, Pat, served as a trustee to the University of Maine System.

Fresh out of St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., Collins worked for Sen. William S. Cohen, 1975-87, before serving in GOP Gov. John McKernan's Cabinet as commissioner of professional and financial regulation, 1987-92.

She was the New England administrator of the Small Business Administration in Boston, 1992-93, and deputy treasurer of the state of Massachusetts for eight months in 1993.

She also served as executive director of the Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor.

Collins was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and won re-election in 2002.

She is single.