Searching for her career path, she learned to help others.

By Derek Herscovici ’14

Sometimes it really is about the journey, and not just the destination. For Tori Allen ’08, a series of career changes have taken her across the landscape of communications and marketing, but through it all she has never missed an opportunity to volunteer in the community.

But in the beginning, it was simply a way to stay active.

“As a journalism grad, I wanted to be a reporter,” said Allen, now a senior communications strategist with a public relations agency in Chicago. “[But] all I could get was just ‘temp’ jobs.”

While working as a receptionist for 18 months, she volunteered at charities and donating blood and platelets whenever she could.

While still in school she landed an internship with CNN and developed her strength in media and public relations. Though the internship didn’t count toward Allen’s curriculum, she later completed another internship with CNN’s The Row, doing script approvals for story packages. With two internships under her belt—but no job yet—the 2008 economic crisis made it a graduate’s worst-case scenario.

One day, while giving blood, Allen told the employees there about her situation. They knew her well—Allen had donated 55 times for platelets, the equivalent to about 1,000 pints of blood. Seeing her dedication, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers hired her as a donor recruiter.

Inspired by her new role, she began pursuing a career in public relations full time. Allen sought as much experience as she could, completing two internships simultaneously in 2011, which helped her land her first industry job at Phase 3 marketing and Communications.

Throughout Allen’s multi-year job search, her main objective was to network as much as possible, and her dedication to volunteering was critical to her success. Even after starting her own company in 2014, ToriAllenPR, she still made time to volunteer at charities in Atlanta.

She worked at StandUp for Kids-Atlanta, a nonprofit fighting the cycle of youth homelessness, and at Nicholas House, which operates a transitional housing shelter. She volunteered at the Birthday Party Project, which hosts birthday parties for homeless kids, and even ran a Valentine’s Day card drive for homeless people by herself, raising $400 to buy holiday goods for a shelter.

Even her dog is from a program called Canine Cellmates, a program at the Fulton County Jail where inmates raise rescue dogs. “After I adopted him, I did about six months of pro bono work for them with media relations, and one of their stories was picked up by USA Today,” said Allen.

In 2018, she relocated to Buffalo, N.Y. to serve as a head coach for the Special Olympics of Western New York, overseeing the bowling, volleyball, basketball and floor hockey events before the Pandemic.

“There is nothing better than being a head coach for the Special Olympics,” she said. “The athletes make even your worst day better with their positive attitude and the excitement they have. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood around them.”

Now living in Chicago, Allen works in public affairs and corporate communications while still doing freelance consulting work, like helping develop the national communications strategy for the U.S. Border Patrol under the Biden administration.

She always makes time to volunteer, and currently works with both WINGS, a domestic violence shelter, and Riverside Foundation, which provides activities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“I spent 40 hours in training to become a volunteer [at WINGS],” said Allen. “It was a very difficult few days, but I’m grateful to learn so much and now share that information with others. Whenever I volunteer, I always want to go somewhere that has a need for help, and a place that will help me grow as a person.”