Randy Coleman is the Chief of Staff and Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance. Coleman oversees the work at the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility, West Virginia Veterans Home, Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery, and 15 statewide benefits offices.
His position at Veterans Assistance is Coleman’s second stint in State government. From 2002 through 2005, he served as Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Communications Director for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, a department that managed 11 state agencies and divisions, a group that included the West Virginia State Police, Air and Army National Guard, Division of Corrections, and Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
From 2005 until 2016, Coleman worked as vice president of public relations at Charles Ryan Associates before operating a solo P.R./marketing business that served a wide variety of regional industrial and business clients and national sports marketing clients. In 2011, Coleman was the creator of the popular outdoor television show Major League Fishing, which has aired on CBS, NBC, and Outdoor Channel and has been the No. 1-rated fishing show on all television networks since 2013.
Before his career path turned in 2002 to communications and management, Coleman was a news reporter, editor, and columnist. Coleman moved to West Virginia in 1998 as a writer and editor for The Associated Press. He served as the statehouse correspondent for the AP, covering politics and State government. Previously, he had covered news and sports for the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle and Herald, Greenville (SC) News, Anderson (SC) Independent Mail, and writing for various other publications.
Coleman has spent much of his professional life as a news writer and communications specialist involved in high-profile stories and events. He has covered national and state political conventions, gubernatorial races, civil rights marches, and environmental issues. In sports, Coleman traveled extensively to write stories and columns about college sports, but he also wrote feature stories about high school athletes and coaches.
In Augusta, Coleman was the newspapers’ sports editor and directed the coverage of The Masters golf tournament.
Coleman is an Anderson, South Carolina, native and a grateful graduate of the University of Georgia. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia