About
Bill Allen joined the Economic Progress Institute Board in October 2026.
Bill Allen is Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs, Watson School for International and Public Affairs at Brown University where has taught since 2006.
Throughout a career of over fifty years, Bill Allen has been an innovative and strategic leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. He held senior management positions in three local United Ways including Executive Vice President and Interim President at the United Way of Rhode Island (1977 to 2004).
Bill teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in nonprofit and philanthropic practice, public policy, policy in action and social entrepreneurship at Brown. He has been a member of the adjunct faculties at Providence College and Boston College School of Social Work. In 2016 he joined the Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP) as a Senior Fellow in the Rhode Island program which he helped establish and in which he was a management seminar faculty member.
Bill was elected to a four-year term on the Town of Cumberland (RI) School Committee in 1986 and chair of the committee in 1988. He has been chair of the board of several Rhode Island-based nonprofits, including Amos House, Children’s Friend and RI Kids Count. He is a member of the board and past-chair of Butler Hospital Foundation. For several years he was a member of the Quality Committee at Care New England.
Bill has a BA in Philosophy from Saint John’s Seminary in Boston and a Master in Social Planning (MSP) degree from Boston College School of Social Work. He received the John O. Stiteley Distinguished Public Service Award from the RI Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration and the David E. Sweet Leadership Award from Leadership Rhode Island.
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