Barbara M. Allen (journalist)

Barbara M. Allen (19??–November 2017) was a local TV personality with a career on WGAL and WITF–TV; off-camera, she worked on public relations and was an entrepreneur.

Allen graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor's degree in speech and drama and earned a master's degree in television from Syracuse University.

Allen began her career on TV at WGAL in 1966 and worked as a part of the Noonday at 8 crew for eight years, doing on-air interviews with many local and national celebrities. She also wrote, hosted, and produced a special program with author and writer Pearl S. Buck called Her Several Worlds.^[1][2][3]

She left WGAL in 1976 to work at WITF–TV as a writer and producer. While at WIFT-TV, she also hosted of two weekly series that aired nationally on PBS, The Gathering Place and American Dreamers.

Allen was a co-founder and partner with the River Ridge Video Productions, which received an award from the Central Pennsylvania Chapter, Women in Communications, for its marketing video for a life care community in Lancaster. She also wrote, co-produced, and acted in an RRVP's children's video, Be Smart About Strangers.

After leaving television work, she became an associate professor of communication arts at Elizabethtown College. At Elizabethtown, she created courses on the history of television and writing for television.

Working in healthcare, she was the first director at St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster (known presently as the UPMC Pinnacle Lancaster)^[4] for public relations. For twelve years, she managed the website for Lancaster's Allergy and Asthma Center.^[5] Allen was also a watercolor artist, receiving two first-place awards from the Lancaster County Art Association.

Allen volunteered with Domestic Services of Lancaster County at one of their shelters and as a member of their speakers' bureau.

She died on November 26, 2017, at Willow Valley Communities.^[6]