Randy Coleman

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 a creator of the popular outdoor television show Major League Fishing, which has aired on CBS, NBC, and Outdoor Channel.

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 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 other publications.

Coleman is an Anderson, South Carolina, native and a grateful graduate of the University of Georgia. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia