Jane Appleyard Allen is a Senior Manager of Public Health in RTI International’s Center for Health Analytics, Media, and Policy. She has more than 20 years of experience evaluating national and state mass media campaigns, including the National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign, the truth campaign, FDA’s The Real Cost campaign, and Colorado’s Responsibility Grows Here and Forward Together campaigns. She was the lead evaluator for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Retail Marijuana Education Program.
Ms. Allen’s research examines the influence of media campaigns and advertising characteristics on risk perceptions, beliefs, and behavior change within specific populations. She is engaged in research to understand the beliefs and behaviors of adult cannabis consumers in the context of legalization, and to inform the development of cannabis regulations. She studies factors that influence youth and adult smoking and vaping, including public health policy and tobacco industry marketing. Ms. Allen is interested in the unintended effects of public policy on health, and in research to reduce racial disparities in health outcomes. Ms. Allen has co-authored 47 peer-reviewed journal articles, and is the first author of two book chapters.
Ms. Allen worked collaboratively with RTI’s Black Employee Resource Group to develop the Ally Workshop, which she also facilitates. The Ally Workshop prepares participants to work effectively for racial justice within their own spheres of influence.