Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served for seven years as Vice Provost for Faculty. A graduate of Harvard Law School with a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Allen is a global thought leader in the fields of privacy law, data protection and ethics. Allen is currently on the Board of the National Constitution Center and is the Chair of the Board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in Washington, D.C. In June 2014, she received EPIC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Allen was one of the first African American women to receive a doctorate in philosophy and the very first in history to be elected a President of the American Philosophical Association. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, and the National Academy of Medicine, Allen served under President Obama as a member of his National Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. A noted bioethicist specializing in health and genetic privacy, Allen also served on the National Advisory Board for Human Genome Research and the IRB of the NIH “All of US” Precision Medicine Initiative. Allen has served on numerous editorial, advisory, and non-profit boards including the Association of American Law Schools, the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the Hastings Center, and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
A prolific scholar, Allen is co-author of Privacy Law and Society (2016). Allen’s other books include, Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide (2011); The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the 21st Century Moral Landscape (2004), and Why Privacy Isn’t Everything (2003). Allen, who has written more than 100 scholarly articles, has also contributed to and been featured in popular magazines and blogs, including The Stone and What It’s Like to be a Philosopher, appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and lectured in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. She has been a visiting professor at Waseda University, Tel Aviv University and at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Villanova.
Learn More About Dr. Allen
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (external)
