Dr. Heather Coltman

Heather Coltman

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Heather Coltman is the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at James Madison University. In this position, she leads the Division of Academic Affairs and is the institution's Chief Academic Officer, directing the development and delivery of all academic programs at JMU, while overseeing the division’s budget and personnel. The Division of Academic Affairs comprises JMU’s seven colleges that deliver more than 130 degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, educational specialist and doctoral levels. Other academic areas, such as the Honors College, the Center for Global Engagement, Research and Scholarship, the Center for Civic Engagement, Outreach and Engagement, the University Registrar, Libraries and Educational Technologies, University Advising, the Graduate School and the Center for Assessment and Research Studies also come under the division’s umbrella.

From 2011-2017, she served as Dean of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at Florida Atlantic University. From 2013-2016, she led the effort to develop a university initiative in “Peace, Justice and Human Rights,” one of nine platforms in FAU’s strategic plan. She joined the faculty of FAU in 1993, becoming a full professor in the Department of Music in 2003. She served as Chair of the Department of Music from 2002-2011, during which time she also served as the Director of Keyboard Studies, the Artistic Director of the College Chamber Music Series and the founder of the TOPS piano camp, which has hosted 3,000 alumni in nearly 20 years of operation.

A solo and collaborative concert pianist, Dr. Coltman has performed, taught and lectured across five continents. Her critically acclaimed recordings can be heard on Wisdom Recordings, Klavier Records, Innova Recordings, Heng Hao Records and Lyra Productions.She made her performance debut in her native country of Zambia at the age of five and immigrated to the United States in 1966. Dr. Coltman holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas, a Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music in New York and a Bachelor of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.