Bernard Coleman

Bernard Coleman is the VP, People at Swing Education, where he leads the People function. In this role, he works to enable best-in-class employee engagement spanning performance management, career development, succession planning, retention, and recruiting and onboarding processes to create operational stability. As a thought leader and influencer of impactful HR practices, Coleman supports business objectives and collaborates with functional leaders to identify future skill/talent needs, as well as acts as a thought partner to the CEO/COO on how to advance Swing Education’s mission, vision, and strategy. In doing so, Coleman helps contribute to an employer brand and culture that attracts top talent and retains employees so they can do the best work of their careers.

Before Swing Education, Coleman served as the Head of Employee Engagement and Chief Diversity Officer at Gusto, where he led the Employee Engagement team, which encompassed diversity, equity and inclusion, employee relations, and people integrity/governance/compliance functions. In that role, Coleman drove the systemic and holistic diversity and belonging programs throughout Gusto and his efforts spanned the boundaries of Gusto working in close collaboration with people program areas like human resources, talent, recruitment, analytics, marketing, communications, and branding in an effort to enhance inclusion and diversity throughout Gusto.

Prior to Gusto, Coleman led DEIB efforts at Uber to embed diversity, belonging, equity, and inclusion at scale across a company of over 28k employees globally. Coleman was instrumental in helping evolve Uber’s culture following a spate of unearthed toxic cultural issues. Coleman was able to successfully accomplish several landmark initiatives, including but not limited to Uber’s first two diversity reports, the first D&I scorecard, the establishment of the Diversity Advisory Council, employee resource growth from 2K to over 7K members, and the development of Uber’s first comprehensive D&I workshop called Why Diversity Matters.

Before Uber, Coleman directed the diversity and HR initiatives at the Hillary Clinton for America campaign as the first ever in United States history, Chief Diversity and Human Resources Officer for any presidential campaign for either political party. Coleman developed the campaign’s institutional planning in support of the mission and goals, as well as assessing the strategic indicators and standards that ensure responsibility and accountability for achieving diversity and cultural competence within the D&I matrix.

Coleman previously served at the Democratic National Committee for six years as the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer and the Director of Human Resources, helping modernize the DNC’s HR operations – moving from transactional to tactical. As part of the modernization, Coleman helped to promote greater pay equity, diversification of staff, the creation of safer spaces, and greater cultural competence across the organization, culminating in fuller partner relationships and enhanced multiculturalism. Coleman has also held senior-level roles at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the Government of the District of Columbia.

In addition, Coleman has written for Forbes, Inc., Catalyst, and the Society for Human Resource Management, and his insights have appeared in media outlets such as Nasdaq Government Clearinghouse, Time Magazine, TechCrunch, and the Huffington Post. Coleman holds an M.B.A. from Trinity University, a B.A. in psychology from Hampton University, a Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management certification from Georgetown University, is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, and is an alumna of the American Council of Young Political Leaders.

Named as one Untapped’s Top DEIB Leaders of 2022 "Walk the Walk" Diversity Equity & Inclusion Leadership Award, 2021 Insiders Top 33 Innovators in HR, 2019 The DiversityFIRST™ Leadership Awardee, a 2018 American Council of Young Political Leaders Fellow, a 2018 Black Enterprise Top Executive in Corporate Diversity, recognized as one of the Top 50 Multicultural Leaders in Technology in 2017 by the National Diversity Council, Coleman was also honored as one of Hampton University’s Inaugural Forty Under 40 honorees, as well as The Network Journal’s 2017 “40 Under Forty” honoree.

Coleman is a SHRM Diversity & Inclusion Expertise Panelist and also serves on the Reproductive Freedom for All board and as a Board Advisor to X0PA AI and advisor to Language & Culture Worldwide.