Allison received her BA from Loyola University where she also received the Jane Addams Social Service Award. She completed her MSW from Fordham University and is a now doctoral student with a concentration in Social Policy. She was chosen as the 2015 recipient of the Rogler Fellowship Award and will focus her studies on Latino populations. She is a practicing clinical social worker with research interests Adoption, Foster Care and Child Welfare. She served on the Lynn Franklyn Fund Advisory Committee at the Donaldson Adoption Institute and serves as an advocate for birth parents and adoptees, groups who are often marginalized domestically and internationally. As a mixed Mexican and Irish American adopted person, Allison understands the impact of policy and human rights from a perspective that prompts her activism her clinical work with many populations.