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Scott Allen is a physician, author, human rights advocate, detention health expert, clinician who treats adults with developmental disabilities, musician, husband, and father.
At the age of 17, he ran away from home in Connecticut to respond to the refugee crisis on the Cambodian border in Thailand in the aftermath of the Killing Fields. That work started him on a path that led to his medical education as a physician at Brown University, international work in Southeast Asia, and then community health center work in the National Health Service Corps in Mississippi and Rhode Island. On return to Brown, he began treating patients in the states jails and prisons, work that eventually led him to collaborate with Physicians for Human Rights on efforts to improve health and human rights of those in detention.
In 2011, he moved from Brown to help found a new medical school at the University of California, Riverside, where he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Chair of Medicine. He also began doing work with the Department of Homeland Security inspecting immigration detention facilities. His protected disclosures to congress in 2018 helped draw attention to serious problems in the detention of children and their families on the U.S. southern border, advocacy that earned he and his colleagues the 2019 Ridenhour Prize and the 2019 Physicians for Human Rights Prize. He has appeared on CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, Democracy Now! and multiple NPR programs.
In a career that has lasted over forty years, he has worked to bring health and justice to people who find themselves in difficult and challenging circumstances. He believes that every human being has value and should be seen and cared for with dignity and respect.
2024 IPNE Book Award Winner
“Across a Bridge of Fire takes us into the most difficult circumstances and still finds a way forward, all the while questioning what it means to be human.”-Pamela Yates, Sundance Special Jury Prize winning documentary film director and human rights activist.
Across a Bridge of Fire is the stunning story of the author’s catastrophic childhood injury, teenage restlessness, and ultimate journey to helping the refugees and displaced survivors of the Cambodian genocide in the wake of the Vietnam War.
At the age of ten, Scott Allen suffered a life-changing burn that landed him in the hospital for months–and changed his life forever. His time spent among the critically injured nurtured within him a deep unease and well of compassion–that shook him from his suburban teenage home and landed him in the heart of the Cambodian refugee crisis of the early 1980s.
His detailed and emotional recounting of the survival stories of the refugees, deep relationships formed with the residents of the camps, and his fellow relief workers would leave an indelible mark on his life and shape a life dedicated to service. Across a Bridge of Fire is the recipient of a Bronze Award from the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE).
Across a Bridge of Fire is the stunning story of the author’s catastrophic childhood injury, teenage restlessness, and ultimate journey to helping the refugees and displaced survivors of the Cambodian genocide in the wake of the Vietnam War.
At the age of ten, Scott Allen suffered a life-changing burn that landed him in the hospital for months–and changed his life forever. His time spent among the critically injured nurtured within him a deep unease and well of compassion–that shook him from his suburban teenage home and landed him in the heart of the Cambodian refugee crisis of the early 1980s.
His detailed and emotional recounting of the survival stories of the refugees, deep relationships formed with the residents of the camps, and his fellow relief workers would leave an indelible mark on his life and shape a life dedicated to service. Across a Bridge of Fire is the recipient of a Bronze Award from the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE).
Available on Amazon or Apple or Barnes and Noble or Walmart or Bookshop.org or through your favorite local bookstore.
"More than anything, this is a story of resilience. Five stars!"– Gerri Shaftel Constant, Producer, 17-Time Emmy Award Winner, CBS News & Stations Los Angeles
"This rivetingly emotional story will leave no reader unchanged."–Evan Howard, author of The Galilean Secret
"...moving and vivid..."– Dana Gold, Senior Counsel, Government Accountability Project
"Brilliant and courageous...An important reflection in a time of too many wars and far too many refugees."–Michael Fine, author of Abundance
"A truly healing, and inspirational chronicle"–George E. Pessotti, President Emeritus, Burn Survivors of New England, author of Reason for Living: A Burn Survivor’s Story of Hope and Rebirth
"Scott Allen’s unique voice is a welcome addition to the modern history of Southeast Asia." –Elizabeth Becker, former Washington Post Cambodia war correspondent, award-winning NPR Senior Foreign Editor and New York Times correspondent. Author of When the War was Over, and You Don’t Belong Here.
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Physician
As a practicing physician, Scott and his wife Dr. Emma Simmons founded and see patients at The Access Clinic, a primary care clinic for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities locaed at Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley, CA.
Human Rights
Dr. Allen began his career in refugee camps as a teenager. He went on to work in the National Health Service Corps in the Mississippi delta, and then worked in prison and detention health. Working with colleagues at Physicians for Human Rights, he helped document the participation of health professionals in the conception, developement, deployment and refinement of the U.S. torture program. He has spoken out against abuse of prisoners in the prison where he worked and in 2018 along with Dr. Pamela McPherson made protected disclosures to congress about harms to children and their families occuring in immigration detention centers on the U.S. souther border.
Scott is also a Singer Songwriter who has released a number of albums over the years. Some of his music is available for free at milomusic.com
Detention Health
Dr. Allen has worked in detention settings dating back to 1980 when he first worked in the refugee program at the U.S. Embassy in Thailand. He subsequently worked in the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, eventually serving as state medical program director. In that period, he and his colleagues published the first article describing treatment of hepatitis C in a correctional setting. He has served as an expert in multiple jail and prison case and has served as an expert to the federal courts. He co-founded the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, now thew Center for Health and Justice Transformation, at Brown. He has taught physicians in the International Committee of the Red Cross health in detention programs, and has testified before congress, including the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Public Speaking
Scott has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally at over sixty meetings, including universities (Harvard, Brown, Boston University, Columbia, Emory, UCLA, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, Loma Linda), national medical meetings (AMA presenting with then president Dr. Patrice Harris), the ACP, the National Academies of Science, the Institute of Medicine and non-profit meetings of Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Government Accountability Project, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
November 26, 2018
Chaos on the Border
60 Minutes - featuring Drs. Allen and McPherson
April 2019
The Ridenhour Prize
Truth-Telling 2019
Organizations who Scott supports (and who have supported Scott!)
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