Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a Senior Fellow in the Bioethics Department, School of Medicine, and was formerly a Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs of the Law School.
A distinguished scholar of privacy law and practical ethics, Dr. Allen is recognized for her work on confidentiality in medicine, genetics and research, racial justice, and women’s health. She recently sat on the board of the Hastings Center and on the Executive Committee of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. In Philadelphia, she serves on the boards of the Maternity Care Coalition and the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children. Dr. Allen also served on the original National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research and its Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Working Group in the 1990s. She is presently on the Board of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health and has written about how American families cope with addiction and mental conditions.
Dr. Allen began her academic career an Assistant Professor at Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, and was the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship at Georgetown University Law Center. She holds both a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan. Her B.A. is from New College, Florida.
