[2] Growing up she attended the Martin Institute, where at the age of 13 she passed the teachers licensing exam and taught a 3rd grade class at Center Union School during the summers.
[2] Collier worked as a home demonstration agent for Jackson County from 1917 to 1923,[3] traveling by train and wagon across rural Georgia; during the outbreak of the Spanish flu, she helped care for 27 families.
[1][4] After graduating cum laude from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1924, Collier's work as a home demonstration agent continued for decades.
[5] In 1944, the Jackson Herald reported that as head of the extension program, Collier oversaw an agency of 116 people serving over 120,000 families across Georgia.
She helped found the Piedmont Regional Library, worked with the Jackson County Historical Society, and was active in the Jefferson United Methodist Church.