Dr. Anita L. Allen spent about a year in corporate law before returning to higher education because, in her “heart and soul,” she was an academic.
Allen, currently the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Carey Law School, has had a storied career in the fields of law, bioethics, data protection, and privacy.
Dr. Anita L. Allen
“As a law professor, I’ve spent my career — which now has extended into 35th or 36th year — working on a couple different areas,” Allen says. “I would say that I work primarily in the area of data protection and privacy law. I’m a specialist on the philosophy and law of privacy and data protection. And I also work in the area of bioethics and the law, with a special focus on genetics, human reproduction, and mental health. And then, I’m also someone who works on issues around personal injury law [and] tort law.”
And for her contributions to these fields, Allen was named as one of two recipients of the 2022 Bioethics Founders’ Award from the research institute, The Hastings Center.
Allen is no stranger to the institute. She says she has been a fellow of The Hastings Center, head of The Hastings Center Council, and ex officio a member of The Hastings Center Board of Directors.
“I was extremely happy and maybe even surprised to receive the Founders' Award from The Hastings Center,” says Allen.
Allen was vice provost for faculty at Penn from 2013 to 2020. She says she also taught law at other universities, including Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Pittsburgh Law School. And prior to obtaining her law degree from Harvard Law, she was a philosophy professor at Carnegie-Mellon University.
