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The April 10 issue of The Indianapolis Business Journal brought back “good memories” for Carolyn Coleman, '97, who was recently recognized in a “where are they now” article for the publication’s 25^th anniversary of its annual Forty Under 40 list.

Coleman made the list in 2000, when she was newly appointed director of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development under then-Mayor Bart Peterson. Today, she is executive director of the League of California Cities.

The latest IBJ article recounts how she was working as an attorney with Baker & Daniels in 1999 when a member of then-mayor-elect  Bart Peterson’s transition team asked for a meeting, and, a few months later, Coleman joined the administration.

After a year and a half as department director and four years as deputy mayor, Coleman went back to Baker & Daniels, but moved to the firm’s Washington, D.C. office to work with local governments in various cities around the country. A year and a half later, she joined the National League of Cities, where she served as legislative director for 10 years. In December, she joined the League of California Cities in Sacramento after the previous director retired.

What the article didn’t mention was Coleman’s continuing ties to Indianapolis and how IU McKinney impacted her career path “a perfect path for a political junkie,” as she describes it.

Coleman came to Indianapolis from her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, in 1987 while working for AT&T. In 1993, she left her corporate job with the telecommunications giant behind for law school as a full-time student. “I had my mid-life career crisis quite young,” she jokes.

In her first year of law school, Coleman clerked at Baker & Daniels and continued as an associate there after graduation until she was approached for the job at the Mayor’s Office.  

Cities throughout the country have many of the same challenges the mayor’s team faced in Indianapolis:  affordable housing, economic development, taxes, public safety, quality schools and cultural amenities, as well as the perennial problem of potholes and aging infrastructure, according to Coleman. “At the local level, you have to be practical and set aside differences to serve your residents,” she said. “Put another way, there are no partisan potholes.”

“I still consider myself a lawyer, a recovering, not practicing one,” Coleman said. “I loved law school and recognize the value of that education in my work every day. My career might not have taken the linear track from associate to partner, but by virtue of my experience in the legal profession and the connections my practice at Baker & Daniels afforded me, I’ve been able to carve out a career that brings together my previous business experience and my passion for cities.”

Coleman returns to Indianapolis regularly as a member of the board of trustees for the University of Indianapolis, and maintains her Indiana law license. One of her proudest achievements is the redevelopment of Fall Creek Place, now a thriving neighborhood with a healthy residential and commercial mix on the near-north side of Indianapolis, which began during her days at the Department of Metropolitan Development.

As she recently told the IBJ, what Coleman learned in Indianapolis gave her the foundation she still uses in her work. “Indianapolis,” she said, “has a great reputation for civic and business leadership coming together to address challenges and to solve problems in creative and innovative ways.”