Virginia Changemakers
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Christy S. Coleman (1964 - )

2022SMW_ChristyColeman_JYF.jpg

Locality

Williamsburg

Occupation

Public Historian

Biography

While in high school Christy S. Coleman began working as a living-history interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg and recognized how museums can help people appreciate the complexity of history beyond heritage and memory. She has held leadership roles at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, in Detroit, and the American Civil War Museum, in Richmond, where she oversaw development of its inclusive and complex interpretation of the Civil War. As co-chair of Richmond's Monument Avenue Commission, she guided often-contentious conversations about how to understand the monuments that memorialized the Lost Cause. Since 2019 Coleman has served as executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a state agency that operates two museums that explore the 17th-century confluence of American Indian, European, and African cultures and the American Revolution. Throughout a career spanning more than 35 years, she has been a tireless advocate for the power of museums, narrative correction, diversity, and inclusiveness.

The author of numerous articles, Coleman is also an accomplished screenwriter and public speaker, and has appeared on several national news and history programs. She served as the historical consultant for the award-winning film Harriett and Showtime's The Good Lord Bird. She has also appeared in the award-winning documentaries Abraham Lincoln, Grant, The Neutral Ground and How the Monuments Came Down.

Coleman has received numerous accolades, including three honorary doctorates, for her leadership in encouraging museums to disrupt comfortable history constructively. In 2018 Time magazine named her one of the "31 People Changing the South," and in 2019 Worth magazine named her one of "29 Women Changing the World."


2022 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History honoree, Library of Virginia and Dominion Energy.

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Photograph courtesy of Sigmon Taylor Photography.

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