Anita L. Allen - Professional Career

Professional Career

Prior to joining the Penn faculty, Allen was professor and associate dean for research and scholarship at Georgetown University Law Center from 1987 to 1998, and an assistant professor of philosophy at Carnegie-Mellon University from 1978 to 1981. She was the first African American woman to serve on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1985 to 1987. She has been a visiting faculty member at Waseda University Law School in Tokyo, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, University of Washington, Hofstra Law School, University of Arizona College of Law, Princeton University, Yale Law School, Villanova University School of Law, and Harvard Law School.

Allen is an expert on privacy law and contemporary ethics. She is also recognized for scholarship about legal philosophy, women’s rights, and race relations.

She has received fellowships from Princeton’s Program in Law and Public Affairs, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Association of University Women, and the Ford Foundation.

Allen is a member of the Pennsylvania and New York bars. She briefly practiced law with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City in 1984 and 1985.

Allen serves on the board of directors of several charities and professional associations, including the American Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Hastings Center, the Maternity Care Coalition, the National Association for Women Lawyer’s Judicial Evaluation Committee and the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children. She was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Human Genome Research.

Allen has been invited to lecture at colleges and universities across the United States and in Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. She has appeared on The Ethical Edge, 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, Talk of the Nation and other television and radio programs. She has written for the popular press, including O, the Oprah magazine; the Daily Beast.com, and the Newark Star Ledger.