The Arkansas Department of Education is getting a new chief of staff.

Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell on Monday named Deborah Coffman to the position, effective immediately.

Coffman moves up from her current post of director of professional development. She has also served as literacy program manager for the agency and as instructional facilitator for at Pocahontas. She has been literacy specialist at the Northeast Education Service Cooperative and she was an elementary teacher at Hoxie.

Coffman previously served as adjunct professor, GED instructor and taught in private school.