Lt. Gov. Coleman steps down as workforce development secretary. What she’ll do instead.

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman announced Thursday that she is stepping down as secretary of the state Education and Workforce Development Cabinet to perform more duties, especially in the area of economic development, in her role as the state’s No. 2 elective official.

“My focus as lieutenant governor and commitment to the Beshear-Coleman administration remain the same. It will just look a little different as I respond to the demands of a booming economy,” Coleman said by video during Gov. Andy Beshear’s weekly “Team Kentucky” news conference in the Capitol.

“So today I am saying farewell to my position as cabinet secretary because I know it is in good hands,” said Coleman.

Deputy secretary Mary Pat Regan will assume the role as acting secretary of the cabinet, said Coleman.

Beshear, who recently said he will keep Coleman as his running mate in his 2023 Democratic re-election campaign, thanked Coleman for her work and said he needs “more than one of me” as Kentucky’s economy is attracting more economic development investments.

“She can help in this day-to-day process of making sure that every one of these economic development opportunities, every one of these potentially Commonwealth-changing opportunities that we are seeing, we can grab,” said Beshear.

Beshear selected Coleman, an educator, to be secretary of the workforce development cabinet in December 2019 when he took office.

The purpose of the cabinet, its website says, is to provide education and quality training so Kentuckians can attain a meaningful career, support their families, break the cycle of poverty and prosper.

As the cabinet secretary, Coleman said its priorities included waiving the $125 testing fee for the 300,000 Kentuckians who don’t have their high school diploma or GED, prioritizing broadband for more education, recruiting more teachers of color and enlisting help for mental health for students.

Soon after Coleman’s announcement, the Kentucky Republican Party said Coleman was “a focal point of Gov. Andy Beshear’s massive scandal” in dealing with unemployment insurance problems during the coronavirus pandemic.

In May 2020, Beshear moved the Office of Unemployment Insurance from the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet into the Labor Cabinet after weeks of criticism about difficulties in obtaining unemployment insurance benefits.

The state GOP said Thursday there were “major failures” on Coleman’s watch.

It noted several reports about the problems, including Auditor Mike Harmon’s finding that abut 400,000 emails sent through Kentucky’s unemployment insurance assistance link between March 19 and May 10 in 2020 were unread and Coleman’s assistance in helping some people she knew get faster help with their unemployment insurance claims.

Regan, of St. Matthews, has served in several key executive positions, including as national vice president for regulatory at AT&T and Kentucky state president of AT&T Communications.

Regan also has participated in a number of Louisville-based community and civic programs, including Greater Louisville Inc., the Kentucky Chamber, Business Leaders for Education, and the United Way.

She also has served as a member of the Board of Directors for Kentucky Educational Television, The Louisville Science Center, the Jefferson County Public Education Foundation and the Louisville Collegiate School. Regan attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison.