Dr. Jay Collins received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of California at Irvine. He did his general surgery residency at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. He then was stationed at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and served aboard the USS America as the ship's surgeon. During his time at Portsmouth he did a one year trauma fellowship with EVMS. He achieved the rank of Commander and later left the US Navy to join the Department of Surgery at EVMS in 2002.

 He has been very involved with the development and maturation of the trauma, burn and emergency general surgery services at EVMS. He is currently the Arthur and Marie Kirk Family Professor of Surgery and Chief of Acute Care Surgery at EVMS. He is the Trauma Medical Director and Director of Burn Services at SNGH. He is a member and leader of many medical committees at EVMS and SNGH. He areas of clinical interest are trauma, burns, emergency general surgery, pancreatitis, biliary diseases, hernia and advanced laparoscopic surgery.