Allen Smart is a national spokesperson and advocate for improving rural philanthropic practice under his group –PhilanthropywoRx. In addition, he recently completed a role as the Project Director for a national rural philanthropic project partially supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. He regularly consults with regional and national foundations on rural and philanthropic strategy.

Allen is the former Interim President, Vice President of Programs and Director of the Health Care Division at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. Prior to coming to the Trust in 2006, Allen was the Vice President of Programs at the Rapides Foundation, a healthcare conversion funder, in Alexandria, Louisiana. He has also served as Director of Community Development for a midwestern Catholic Hospital System and as Grants Administrator for the City of Santa Monica, California.

Allen received his Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago, his Master of Arts in Telecommunication Arts from the University of Michigan and his Bachelors in Arts in Philosophy from Macalester College.

As part of his personal and professional interest in philanthropy, Allen regularly writes for sites such as The Daily Yonder, Inside Philanthropy, Grantcraft and Exponent Philanthropy, as well as presenting to national and regional organizations like Grantmakers in Health, Southeastern Council of Foundations, National Rural Assembly and the federal Office of Rural Health Policy. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Rural Resource Hub at The University of North Dakota; the Culture of Health Prize Selection Committee for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Board of Directors for Healthy Communities by Design and the Board of the North Carolina Healthcare Association Foundation.