Doug Allen

A ’73 alum of the Department, returned to campus this Fall to serve as Professor of Practice and Distinguished Labor Leader in Residence. He is LSER’s third Distinguished Labor Leader in Residence. Doug, a linebacker with the Nittany Lions from 1969 to 1973, has had an accomplished career in the labor movement. After retiring from the Buffalo Bills after several seasons in the NFL, Doug put his Labor Studies degree to work when he accepted a position as regional director for the AFL-CIO committee on Political Education in New York and New Jersey. In 1982 he joined the NFL Players Association where he served as the Assistant Executive Director from 1982-2007 and played a key role in several rounds of negotiations with the NFL owners. In 2007 he was named Executive Director of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the union representing actors in the motion picture, television, and advertising industries. He oversaw day-to-day operations and all executive, operational, functional, and financial matters and served as chief negotiator. Doug left SAG in 2009. Over the past few years he has been working as a consultant to unions.
In addition to his union work, Doug has been an advocate for the Department. In the 1990’s, Doug helped found, and later became the chair of, the LSER Alumni Program Group (APG), the first group of its kind in the College of Liberal Arts. Doug recruited numerous other alums to the APG’s Executive Board. Under his leadership, the LSER APG became the leader among alumni organizations in the College. In 2003, his efforts on behalf of the Department and the College were recognized when he received the Liberal Arts Alumni Society Service to Penn State Award and presented LSER’s Outstanding Alumni Lecture in 2007. In 2009, he received the University’s highest alumni honor-the Distinguished Alumni Award.