delia Bromell Allen, Ph.D.

Dr. Delia Bromell Allen has diverse experiences within corporate, consulting, government agency, pre-K through 12, and higher education settings. Most recently, she is affiliated with the Richard W. Riley Institute at Furman University, where she serves as a Research Associate in the Center for Education Policy and Leadership. Dr. Allen is also a visiting professor in the Department of Educational and Organizational Leadership Development at Clemson University. Earlier in her career she served as both an engineer and a public highschool math teacher.

In addition to serving as CLN’s Sr. Consultant, Programming & Evaluation, Dr. Allen serves as Research Director for the Goldstream Group where she consults and oversees and conducts monitoring and evaluation of educational, behavioral health, and social service programs. She also serves on the National Education Finance Academy (NEFA) membership committee and was the inaugural recipient of the BEFA Fowler Education Finance Policy Research Fellow Award (2018-2019). As a member of the NEFA Board of Trustees, Delia focuses on strategies to strengthen the engagement of, and bridge the communication gap between, finance sector scholars and policymakers. Overall, Dr. Allen brings diverse experiences and knowledge from the corporate sector, project management, program monitoring and evaluation, STEM, and educational settings. 

Notably, Dr. Allen recently served as principal consultant on a 2021 Child Trends report titled: Understanding Equitable Access to Public Montessori Pre-K: A Case Study of Montessori Recruitment and Enrollment Practices. A primary goal of this work was to begin to understand whether and how public Montessori pre-K enrollment policies might create barriers to access for underrepresented families—particularly Black and Brown families, and families experiencing poverty. The study contained complex large data sets with thousands of children and their families from nearly 700 Montessori-based Pre-K programs throughout the United States. 

Dr. Allen holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Policy from the University of Georgia, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Clemson University.