Carmen Allison is the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and received her Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2023. She leads a human resources team to ensure the Hoover Institution has the talent needed to achieve the mission.

 

She is responsible for the associate and leadership development and creating an engaging culture that welcomes diversity and inclusion for all staff and fellows. Carmen has twenty-five years of experience as a human resources practitioner and leading high performing talent teams at Pepsico/YumBrands, Gap Inc. and at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. as the SVP Human Resources for three Pottery Barn Brands. She received her B.S. in Business from Northern Arizona University and completed her MBA.  In addition, Carmen has a Master's of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.  Carmen is a certified executive coach from Columbia University.

 

Carmen’s prior experience consists of leading company-wide organizational culture and transformation initiatives; developing programs on leadership, cross cultural readiness, and management; conducting global organizational development and projects in USA, Portugal, Italy, Korea and Singapore.

 

Early in her career she developed a strong business acumen with general management and P&L responsibility which has given her a unique perspective when solving talent challenges within the business. Carmen grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas and felt the call to serve.

 

She is a U.S. Army veteran where she led soldiers at Ft Bliss, Texas, Taegu Korea, and West Point Military Academy and served during Operation Desert Storm. Carmen currently lives in San Francisco with her family and enjoys being outside enjoying the Bay Area.