Allen holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (Edward Mason Fellow, 2017) and a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Manchester, UK (1998).
Allen is currently the Deputy CEO and Chief of Programmes at TradeMark East Africa. Her experience in operations and technical delivery of TMEA’s entire project portfolio in infrastructure, trade environment, and business competitiveness spans 12 countries in East, Horn and Southern Africa. Allen is also passionate about Climate Change and Gender and leads collaboration with key stakeholders and development partners, including the Partner States, FCDO, USAID, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Prior to this, Allen was a consultant for the African Export Import Bank supporting the implementation of the Intra Africa Trade Initiative across the continent, and has served as past CEO of AVID Development, a consulting firm working on key issues of trade, development, and governance in Africa.
Allen is also a co-founder of Girls For Girls, a global mentoring initiative that seeks to empower ONE million girls to lead. Girls For Girls now has a footprint in 24 countries globally, 7 in Africa with over 2,500 mentees and 1,000 mentors.