Bonnie Allen

Since 2015, Bonnie Allen has served as Executive Director/CEO of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a non-profit civil rights legal organization that advances racial equity and economic opportunity for all. Bonnie has 25 years of national and regional experience in public interest law, including serving as Director of the American Bar Association’s Center for Pro Bono, Executive Director of the Center for Law and Renewal at the Fetzer Institute, and Development Director at the Mississippi Center for Justice.

A graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Florida College of Law, Bonnie also holds a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies in Ethics and Culture from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She started her legal career as an appellate court law clerk in Florida and practiced in the areas of civil litigation and criminal defense in Tampa. Bonnie taught ethics and professional responsibility at the University of Maryland School of Law, and has published numerous journal articles on the topics of community lawyering, leadership, and ethics. In partnership with the Fetzer Institute, Kellogg Foundation, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, Bonnie co-facilitated community recovery retreats in Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and also on the faculty of the Shriver Center’s leadership academy in different parts of the country.

More recently, Bonnie was appointed by Chicago Mayor Emanuel to serve on the Search Committee for the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, and she was appointed by Mayor Lightfoot to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Mayor’s February 2020 Poverty Summit. She is a proud member of The Chicago Network.