Her father was a member of "Operation Kapers," a squad of enlisted men who entertained combat soldiers in Korea with song, dance, and comedy.

Allen spent her childhood living on military bases, including Fort Benning, Georgia, and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

[citation needed] Allen graduated an honor student from Baker High School in Columbus, Georgia, in 1970 in three years.

Under the direction of Professor Bryan Norton, she completed an undergraduate thesis on the philosophy of logical positivist Rudolf Carnap.

Allen received training in analytic philosophy at the University of Michigan, where she also studied modern dance, alongside classmate Madonna.

Professor Richard Brandt, a noted proponent of moral utilitarianism, advised Allen's doctoral thesis, "Rights, Children and Education."

Her dissertation examined Thomas Hobbes' and John Locke's theories of parental authority, and the moral ideal of a right to education.

Allen was one of the first African-American women to earn a PhD in philosophy, along with Angela Davis, Joyce Mitchell Cook, LaVerne Shelton, and Adrian Piper.

While attending Harvard, Allen served as a teaching fellow for Professors Michael Sandel, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, and Sissela Bok.

Allen is one of several successful black professionals whose experiences and perspectives have been profiled in books including Laurel Holliday's Children of the Dream (2000), Ellis Cose's The Rage of a Privileged Class (1994), George Yancy's African American Philosophers: 17 Conversations (1998,) and Elwood Watson: Outsiders Within (2008).

"[2] In 2010 President Barack Obama appointed Allen to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

[6] In 2019 Allen received an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University for her contributions to legal philosophy, women's rights, and diversity in higher education.

She was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Human Genome Research, and served on the IRB of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative, ALL of US Allen has been invited to lecture at colleges and universities across the United States and in Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Israel, and Taiwan.