Biography

Allison leads the Economic Mobility Practice at Entangled, which harnesses tools of innovation to help leaders—in education, workforce, and philanthropy—design and implement better education+work pathways. In that work, she draws on a wide range of experience, as an educator, administrator, and entrepreneur that has centered on designing new, more effective educational models. She believes deeply in giving learners the tools to design their own educational pathways, improve their economic trajectories, and ultimately live meaningful lives.

Allison’s recent work at Entangled includes leading the On-Ramps to Good Jobs research project, which resulted in a category-defining report on new employer-led training models. In early 2019, she launched the Opportunity Pathways Network, a national funder collaborative—including the Walton Family Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Strada Education Network and a dozen others—to support a shared investment strategy for economic mobility. 

As Head of Innovation, she also supports new company creation in Entanged’s Venture Studio. Since joining in 2017, she has helped build two new companies: Pathstream, which prepares students for high-demand digital careers, and Adjacent, which partners with colleges to offer for-credit coding and skills bootcamps. She has served on the board of ReUp Education, an Entangled company, and regularly shares insights from her work in columns for EdSurge, Inside Higher Education, and Forbes.

Prior to Entangled, Allison built the higher education business at EdSurge, focused on transforming learning for low-income students through the use of technology, and led innovation for Davidson College from the President’s Office, where she built an entrepreneurship program and venture fund, and led Davidson’s first foray into MOOCs. Inspired by how education can be a tool for individual and community empowerment, she began her career as a social justice educator designing and teaching experiential learning programs for undergraduates in the U.S. South and rural Thailand.