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Person

Adrienne Coleman

Nationality:

American
Born:

1975
Profession:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professional

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Adrienne Coleman is a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) trainer based in Illinois. In addition to working as the director of equity and inclusion at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Coleman conducts trainings and presentations for other businesses, schools, and organizations.

In one of her presentations, she presented about the controversial theme of “implicit bias” which claims that people can be racist without knowing it due to a person’s socialization patterns. 1

In 2021, Coleman presented to at least one school system in Illinois on the topic of “Leading for Equity and Excellence in the School Setting.” 2

Early Life

Coleman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in community health and preventive medicine in 1997 from Eastern Illinois University. She graduated with a masters in higher education and public health education in 2002 from Illinois State University. 3

She was a member of AmeriCorps and was a member of a U.S. delegation to Moldova that worked on issues such as human trafficking and inadequate public health education. 4

After serving as an instructor at Illinois State University, she went to Rutgers University where she worked as an adjunct faculty member, a research assistant, and a program development specialist. 5

In 2006, she joined the staff of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. In 2009, she took her first diversity-equity-and-inclusion-related position at IMSA and eventually became the director of equity and inclusion in 2017. 6

Her DEI Work

In addition to her work at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Coleman is a diversity, equity, and inclusion trainer and lecturer for nonprofits, businesses, school districts, and other organizations. In 2018, she founded the company Candid Conversations Matter, LLC to handle her DEI work outside of her job. 7

In May 2017, she was part of an initiative to bring more minority and female students into IMSA and to get them involved into science and engineering fields in general. The goal was to lead the state and possibly the nation in that goal. The school held a series of “think tank” events to brainstorm ideas to do just that. 8

Coleman claimed that the problem she ran into when recruiting Black and Latino students was that they did not see professionals in those fields that looked just like them. She also claimed that they did not have access to STEM programs until they had extracurricular programs in school. 9

In April 2018, Coleman did a presentation in Naperville, Illinois, that talked about “implicit bias.” She claimed that people could be unconsciously biased due to socialization patterns. She called for “courageous conversations” to reduce that bias. She also called for the audience to work for the critical race theory-inspired notion of “equity.” 10

K-12 Work

On February 2021, Coleman was hired to present a series of talks by the DuPage Regional Office of Education in Illinois. The talks were five sessions for its Administrator’s Academy as a series of talks and trainings given by Coleman and other DEI consultants. Coleman was paid a total fee of $8,500 and she spoke on the topic of “Leading for Equity and Excellence in the School Setting.” 11

References

  1. Sharos, David. 2018. “MLK’s Sister-In-Law Pushes For Nonviolence, Communication During Naperville Panel”. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-king-nonviolence-panel-st-0415-story.html.
  2. “Coleman, Adrienne”. 2021. Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 15. https://defendinged.org/report/adrienne-coleman/.
  3. “Dr. Adrienne Coleman”. 2021. Linkedin. Accessed November 15. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-adrienne-coleman-a4a7b34/.
  4. “Selectedworks – Adrienne Coleman, Ed.D.”. 2021. Selected Works. Accessed November 15. https://works.bepress.com/adrienne_coleman/.
  5. “Dr. Adrienne Coleman”. 2021. Linkedin. Accessed November 15. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-adrienne-coleman-a4a7b34/.
  6. “Dr. Adrienne Coleman”. 2021. Linkedin. Accessed November 15. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-adrienne-coleman-a4a7b34/.
  7. “Free DEI Training Series For Nonprofits”. 2021. Rockford Buzz. https://rockfordbuzz.com/free-dei-training-series-for-nonprofits.
  8. Freishtat, Sarah. 2017. “IMSA Working To Get More Women, Minorities Into Science And Math Careers”. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/ct-abn-imsa-underrepresented-stem-st-0508-20170505-story.html.
  9. Freishtat, Sarah. 2017. “IMSA Working To Get More Women, Minorities Into Science And Math Careers”. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/ct-abn-imsa-underrepresented-stem-st-0508-20170505-story.html.
  10. Sharos, David. 2018. “MLK’s Sister-In-Law Pushes For Nonviolence, Communication During Naperville Panel”. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-king-nonviolence-panel-st-0415-story.html.
  11. “Coleman, Adrienne”. 2021. Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 15. https://defendinged.org/report/adrienne-coleman/.
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