Calden Collins is a native of Rhode Island. He graduated from Classical High School in Providence and received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in chemistry at the University of Rhode Island. Following that he completed a two-year graduate research program at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and received his Master of Arts in Biology degree. He completed an additional year of full time graduate study in Integrated Biological Science at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Collins taught science in the secondary schools of North Royalton, Ohio for eight years before returning to Rhode Island to teach science at the secondary level in the Cranston Public Schools. For thirteen years heserved as Science Department Chairperson and Instructional Supervisor of Science K-12.From 2001 until 2008, he was employed as an adjunct faculty member of the Science Department at Johnson & Wales University.