Art Coleman is a managing partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC. With extensive background in providing legal, policy, strategic planning, and advocacy services to educators throughout the country, Mr. Coleman addresses issues of access, accountability and completion in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education.

Mr. Coleman’s work centers on:

• The development of college and career-ready policy development, with a focus on key issues of accountability and assessments; accreditation and accountability alignment; and access for students with disabilities and English language learners;
• The development of higher education access and completion policies, including a focus on enrollment-related policies designed to enhance access and the educational benefits of diversity (including with a focus on student financial aid, admissions and outreach policies; faculty employment policies; and issues associated with accreditation standards);
• The development of fully inclusive school and university safety policies (including student bullying and harassment policies), as well as related issues of legally protected expression and speech; and
• The design of strategies and the implementation of plans to support not-for-profit organizations that seek to align their educationally focused goals with their core objectives and with relevant federal, state and local governmental policies.

Mr. Coleman served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights from June 1997 until January 2000, following his three-and-a-half year tenure as Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Mr. Coleman’s responsibility for the development of federal civil rights policy in education and enforcement of relevant federal laws centered on issues relating to standards reform, test use, students with disabilities, English language learners, affirmative action, desegregation, sexual and racial harassment, and gender equity in athletics. 

Mr. Coleman is a 1984 honors graduate of Duke University School of Law and a 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia.  He has testified before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; he has served as an adjunct professor at two law schools and at one graduate school of education; and he has spoken widely and published extensively regarding legal and policy issues in education.  He is a "recovering litigator," having gotten his start as a lawyer with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough from 1984 to 1993, the law firm with which EducationCounsel is affiliated.

Mr. Coleman is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Higher Education Policy and a former member of the Advisory Board for the Alliance for Excellent Education. He is also a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys. 

A native of South Carolina, he and his partner are the proud parents of a daughter and son, each of whom serves as a daily reminder about the challenges and opportunities—and joy—that education provides.