Jacqueline Coleman | |
---|---|
58th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky | |
Assumed office December 10, 2019 | |
Governor | Andy Beshear |
Preceded by | Jenean Hampton |
Secretary of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet | |
In office December 10, 2019 – October 21, 2021 | |
Governor | Andy Beshear |
Preceded by | Derrick Ramsey |
Succeeded by | Cabinet abolished[a] |
Personal details | |
Born | Jacqueline Layne Coleman June 9, 1982 Danville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Chris O'Bryan |
Children | 4 |
Parent |
|
Relatives | Jack Coleman (grandfather) |
Education | Centre College (BA) University of Louisville (MA) University of Kentucky |
Jacqueline Layne Coleman (born June 9, 1982) is an American educator and politician serving as the 58th lieutenant governor of Kentucky since 2019. She has worked as a high school administrator, teacher, and basketball coach. Coleman is also the founder and president of Lead Kentucky, a nonprofit organization focused on education policy reform. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Coleman attended Mercer County High School in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she played basketball.[2] She enrolled at Centre College in 2001 to study history, earned a bachelor's degree in 2004, and played college basketball for the Centre Colonels as a 5-foot-6 shooting guard.[3][4][5][6] As a senior at Centre in 2003–04, Coleman averaged 26.4 minutes, 7.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists, with 14 starts in 25 games.[5][7] She earned a master's degree in political science at the University of Louisville in 2008, and was a graduate assistant on the Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team in 2005–06 under head coach Tom Collen.[4][2][8]
After graduating, Coleman became a social studies teacher at Burgin High School in Burgin, Kentucky, and coached the girls' basketball team.[9] From 2008 through 2015, she coached and taught advanced government at East Jessamine High School in Nicholasville, Kentucky.[2]
Coleman ran in a 2014 election to represent the 55th district in the Kentucky House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party. She lost the election to Kimberly King, a Republican, by over 30% in a traditionally Republican-dominated district.[4][10] Specifically, there was no Democratic candidate to win a race in the 55th district that day.[11]
In 2013, Coleman founded Lead Kentucky, a nonprofit organization focused on education policy reform. Inspired by Emerge Kentucky, the mission statement reads: "Lead Kentucky is a non-profit organization that recruits the best and brightest college women in the Bluegrass and empowers them to become the Commonwealth's next generation of leaders."[12] By focusing on leadership development of college aged women through emphasis on networking, finding a work/life balance, and overcoming obstacles (specifically in Kentucky), Coleman hopes that this program will empower women to take on roles that they may otherwise avoid.[13]
She became assistant principal at Nelson County High School in Bardstown, Kentucky in 2017,[4] a position she held until her resignation in November 2019, following her election as lieutenant governor.[14] Coleman is a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky, where she is studying educational leadership.[15]
Andy Beshear selected Coleman as his running mate on the Democratic ticket in the 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election.[4] On November 5, 2019, Beshear was declared the winner of the election, making Coleman the lieutenant governor-elect.[16] After the election, Coleman said she would focus on education and rural economic development as lieutenant governor.[17]
Coleman was again Beshear's running mate in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election.[18] Beshear and Coleman were re-elected on November 7, 2023.[19]
Coleman and Beshear were sworn into office on December 10.[20] In addition to serving as lieutenant governor, Beshear tapped Coleman to be the Secretary of Education and Workforce Development in his cabinet;[21] however, she stepped down from this position in October 2021, saying that "seeing these commitments through requires a laser-like focus".[22]
Coleman's grandfather, Jack Coleman, played in the National Basketball Association.[3] Her father, also named Jack, served in the Kentucky House, representing the 55th district from 1991 through 2004.[4]
Coleman and her husband, Chris O'Bryan, announced her pregnancy during the 2019 campaign. Their daughter was born on February 8, 2020, making Coleman the highest-ranking elected executive official and first lieutenant governor in Kentucky history to give birth while in office.[23] Coleman also has another daughter, a former student she coached, whom she and O'Bryan adopted in December 2019, and is the stepmother to O'Bryan's two sons from a previous relationship.[3][24][25][26] On December 18, 2023, Coleman had a double mastectomy due to her family's history of cancer.[27]