The University of Tennessee Health Science Center's (UTHSC) College of Nursing has appointed Christopher Lance Coleman, PhD, MS, MPH, FAAN, as chair and professor of the Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Prior to joining the UTHSC faculty, Coleman was the director of the Health Equity Collaborative, and the Fagin Term associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, (Penn) School of Nursing. While at Penn, he served as chair of the Faculty Senate, the Biomedical IRB Panel, and the MPH admissions committee in the Perelman School of Medicine. Additionally, he served as the co-director of the former Center of Health Equity Research Center in the School of Nursing.

He received his bachelor of science degree from Walla Walla University in 1986 and a master's degree from Oregon Health Sciences University in family and child psychiatry in 1991. Coleman received his PhD from the University of California, San Francisco in 1996, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA in 1998. Additionally, he earned an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 2004. In 2007, Coleman was elected to the American Academy of Nursing for his outstanding scientific contributions.