Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins didn’t at all times wish to be a politician, however he has lengthy had a want to serve others.
The 58-year-old native of Gainesville, Georgia, selected pastoral ministry as his first profession. Thirty years later, he finds himself main the sprawling authorities company that serves greater than 17 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
On Feb. 5, Collins turned the twelfth secretary of the Division of Veterans Affairs, a Cupboard-level place that makes him one among 15 key advisers to President Donald Trump.
The highway between these two positions included greater than 25 years as a army chaplain, a tour in Iraq, commencement from regulation faculty, and a number of phrases as a state and federal lawmaker.
The thread connecting these various experiences is religion, Collins says.
The Highway to Washington
Collins married Lisa Jordan in 1988, the identical 12 months he graduated from North Georgia School and State College.
In an early indication of his curiosity in politics, Collins interned for then-Rep. Ed Jenkins (D-Ga.) whereas nonetheless a pupil.
The decision to ministry was stronger, nevertheless, and Collins went on to attend New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, graduating in 1996. His spouse turned a profession educator in Georgia public faculties.
Collins pastored at Gainesville’s Chicopee Baptist Church from 1994 to 2005, main the rising congregation to construct a bigger facility within the late Nineties.
Alongside the best way, he joined the U.S. Air Drive Reserve as a chaplain, finally rising to colonel, a rank he continues to carry. From 2008 to 2009, Collins served a fight deployment at Balad Air Base, close to Baghdad.
After greater than a decade in pastoral ministry, Collins credit his father, retired state trooper Lenard Collins, with inspiring his shift to public service.
Collins efficiently ran for the Georgia Home of Representatives in 2006 and graduated from the John Marshall Regulation Faculty in Atlanta the next 12 months.
“I’ve at all times felt God was going to guide me into public service sooner or later,” Collins instructed The Gainesville Occasions shortly after his election.
After three phrases within the statehouse, Collins was elected to Congress in 2012 and served till 2021.
In January 2020, Collins introduced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, operating in a particular election to fill the rest of Sen. Johnny Isakson’s time period after Isakson retired for well being causes.
He was supported by President Donald Trump and confronted incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who had been appointed to the seat quickly, in addition to Democrat Raphael Warnock. Collins completed third within the nonpartisan main. After his defeat, Collins endorsed Loeffler within the runoff in opposition to Warnock.
Veterans First
As VA secretary, Collins leads the biggest well being care system within the nation. The Veterans Well being Administration gives care to greater than 9 million veterans, at practically 1,400 amenities.
Collin sums up his strategy to the job in two phrases: “Veterans first.”
That readability of focus seems to make Collins extra prepared to contemplate modern approaches and push for outcomes.
One instance is his willingness to bypass conventional media and talk immediately with veterans.
Talking with a veteran influencer on X, Collins spoke of his initiatives to attach veterans who’re considering suicide with help programs. About 22 veterans die by suicide every day, in line with an estimate from the VA.
The secretary defined his philosophy: “What’s our return on funding? Are we really serving to a veteran?”
To make sure a greater consequence, Collins goals to redouble efforts to allow veterans to make use of community-based well being care providers when immediate care will not be accessible at a VA hospital or clinic.
Collins stated that can now not be the case and expanded well being care choices might be accessible. “We’re going to pay for that since you’ve earned the profit,” he stated.
Religion to Combat
Collins inherited an company suffering from complaints of inefficiency, a fame he’s decided to alter. Beneath that willpower to succeed is identical religion and want that impressed Collins’ pastoral work.
“Religion makes me wish to assist others,” he stated. “It makes me compassionate, but it surely additionally makes me agency… typically it’s important to stand and struggle.”
There are indicators of early progress.
There was a major discount within the variety of incapacity functions that aren’t processed inside 200 days, Collins stated. The backlog had reached greater than 260,000 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and had since remained largely unchanged. Collins directed his workers to work intently on that subject.
“We’re underneath 200,000 for the primary time in over two years,” Collins stated.
“It issues as a result of the veteran will not be having to attend for a choice,” with a view to transfer ahead with life, he added.
The company has additionally reformed its service to Gold Star households—those that have misplaced a beloved one within the line of obligation.
“We have been an excessive amount of on what I name the scientific facet,” Collins stated, that means that VA representatives typically described what providers they supply to households in businesslike phrases.
Collins directed the company to take a extra compassionate strategy, helping households in a fashion just like that of funeral administrators.
“We guarantee that they get no less than heard and cared for, as a result of anybody going via that trial of a loss is somebody who wants extra help, and so they additionally want solutions,” Collins stated.
“This job, for me, is taking good care of individuals,” Collins stated. “It’s not accepting [that] we’ve at all times accomplished it that method earlier than.”
“There are issues that aren’t value compromising on.”
Doug and Lisa Collins celebrated 37 years of marriage in June. The Collinses have three grownup youngsters and attend Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville.