Woman in black shirt and red hair wrap smiling and holding eyeglasses.
Christy S. Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum. (Photo by Kim Brundage)

Nov. 28, 2018

Christy Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum, to deliver fall commencement address

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By Mike Porter

Christy Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum, will deliver the keynote address at Virginia Commonwealth University’s fall commencement ceremony in December.

Coleman, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hampton University, began her career at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, eventually serving as director of interpretive programs development and overseeing all programming and tours in the historic area. In 1999, she became president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. She was named president and CEO of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond in 2008.

In 2013, Coleman helped orchestrate the merger of the American Civil War Center with the Museum of the Confederacy to create the American Civil War Museum, which is located in Richmond and Appomattox. Coleman has been recognized for striving to make museum experiences meaningful to diverse communities and being an innovative leader in the history museum field. Earlier this year, Time magazine featured Coleman on a list of “31 People Who Are Changing the South.”

VCU will hold fall commencement on Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St.