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Art Coleman

Art Coleman headshot

EducationCounsel Managing Partner

Art Coleman is Managing Partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC.  He provides policy, strategic, and legal counseling services to national non-profit organizations, school districts, state agencies, and postsecondary institutions throughout the country, where he addresses issues associated with: 

  • student access, diversity, inclusion, expression, and success;
  • faculty diversity,  inclusion and expression; and 
  • institutional accountability and accreditation.

Mr. Coleman previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, where, in the 1990s, he led the Department’s development of the Department’s Title VI policy on race-conscious financial aid, as well as OCR’s first comprehensive Title IX sexual harassment policy guidance.      

Mr. Coleman was instrumental in the establishment of the College Board's Access and Diversity Collaborative (ADC) in 2004, which he has helped lead since its inception.  With a focus on issues of diversity and inclusion, he has authored amicus briefs in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), and in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (I and II, 2013 and 2016).  His advocacy work also includes the development of a federal amicus strategy and numerous briefs on behalf of transgender students in federal court litigation throughout the United States. 

A former litigator, 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 is a member of the Board of Directors of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network); the Lab School of Washington, which serves students with learning differences; the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA); and a past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Mr. Coleman is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, where he teaches a course on enrollment management law and policy.