Walter R. Allen

Walter R. Allen is Allan Murray Cartter Professor in Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also Distinguished Professor of Education and Sociology and Director of CHOICES, a longitudinal study of college attendance among African Americans and Latinos in California. He is co-investigator for “Educational Diversity in U.S. Law Schools,” a study of race, ethnicity, teaching and learning in legal education. Professor Allen’s research interests include higher education, race and ethnicity, family patterns and social inequality. He has been a consultant to courts, communities, business and government.

His more than 150 publications include: As the World Turns: Global Higher Education; Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: College Barriers, Hopes and Plans of Black, Latino/a and Asian American Students in California; Till Victory is Won: The African American Struggle for Higher Education in California; Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving Diversity, Equity and Excellence; Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education; College in Black and White: African American Students in Predominantly White and Historically Black Public Universities; and The Colorline and the Quality of Life in America.

Allen earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago in sociology and a B.A. in sociology from Beloit College.