David F. Allen

Dr. David Allen studied medicine at St. Andrews University Medical School in Scotland, and Psychiatry and Public Health at Harvard Medical School where he was a Kennedy Fellow. He did further work in religion, psychiatry and ethics at Harvard Divinity School. Since then, Dr. Allen has taught psychiatry and religion at Harvard, Yale and Georgetown Medical School. Dr. Allen was mentored in theology by Dr. Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland, in psychiatry and spirituality by Fr. Henri Nouwen at Yale Divinity School, and in contemplative psychology by Dr. Gerald May at the Shalem Institute, Washington, DC. Dr. Allen was featured in a PBS special on the drug wars which documented his identification of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1985. In 1987 he was awarded the Bennet Commonwealth Prize by the Royal Society of Arts in London for his pioneering work in cocaine addiction. In 2008 Dr. Allen was made a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Allen has established drug and alcohol treatment clinics in Nassau, Bahamas and Washington, DC. He is a popular conference speaker and has an international private practice in the Bahamas. His television show, "People Helping People" and his radio show, "Coming Home to Face Our Heart", are seen and heard weekly in the Bahamas. David and his wife, Victoria, live in their beloved native Bahamas.