Peggi Collins was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the oldest of four children. Her father was a U.S. Air Force officer, so the family moved frequently. Peggi graduated in 1965 from Palos Verdes High School as a member of its Charter Class. Before the family settled in Palos Verdes Estates in 1961, Peggi had lived in eight States, and in Fontainebleau, France. While stationed in France, the family traveled extensively throughout Europe, and those experiences instilled in Peggi a life-long interest in people, places, and especially languages.

Since moving to California, Peggi has returned to Europe many times, and has also spent considerable time in Mexico, Japan and Taiwan. She has varying degrees of fluency in French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese, and attributes her resiliance and ability to quickly adjust to new situations to her military upbringing.

Actively involved in the community, Peggi was Chair of Torrance Memorial Medical Center's Holiday Festival in 2004, 2005 and 2006, an event she has been involved with for 15 years (torrancememorial.org). She is a former Trustee of the Little Company of Mary Hospital Foundation, and a founding member of the steering committee for it's annual Simple Abundance Day of Women's Wellness which raises money for the Sexual Assault Response Team ("SART"). Peggi is also an active member of Vistas for Children, Inc. (vistasforchildren.org), a non-profit organization which raises money for various children's causes.

Peggi has served as a Director of the South Bay Bar Association, instituting and co-chairing it's annual Adopt-a-Family program; as a Trustee for Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services
(hathaway-sycamores.org); and she retired from the Board of Directors of the Palos Verdes Art Center (pvartcenter.org) after serving as it's Legal Counsel, President and Chairman. Peggi also provides free legal advice to other South Bay non-profit organizations such as the Palos Verdes Peninsula Seniors, and has served on the ABA Accreditation Committee for El Camino College’s Legal Assistant Program since its inception in 1986.

With her husband, Steve, who is retired from the Long Beach Fire Department, she enjoys surfing, snow skiing, snow boarding and water-skiing. Having completed both the California Highway Patrol's CCRider Basic and Experienced Rider motorcycle courses, Steve and Peggi are enjoying their 2004 Harley-Davidson Road King Custom motorcycles (californiaharley.com). While traveling, Peggi takes advantage of the Internet and mobile communications technology to keep in touch with her office and clients from wherever in the world she might be.