He is professor emeritus and former director of the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (formerly the Program in Human Sexuality)[2] in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota.

[3] In 2007, he was appointed the first endowed Chair in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

[3][5] He is one of the past-presidents of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association), the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), International Academy of Sex Research, and the Society for Sex Therapy and Research.

[3] Regarding sexual addiction, Coleman has said, "I think the term 'addiction' is overused and implies that all behavioral excesses can be explained by some similar mechanism.

Sex is a basic appetitive drive that for some people becomes out of balance for a variety of reasons.