Bio


Doree Allen is a Senior Lecturer and the founding director of Stanford’s Oral Communication Program. She earned a B.A. in English from Mills College, and went on to receive her M.A. in Film and her Ph.D. in English from Stanford University,

In addition to offering individual consultations to students and faculty throughout the university, she teaches a variety of courses and workshops on public speaking and oral interpretation, including The Art of Public Speaking, From the Page to the Stage, Leading Out Loud, and The TED Commandments. Her research interests include the poetics of the performed text and Carol Gilligan and Kristin Linklater's innovative work on voice and gender. Currently, she is developing a project that involves the writing and performance of poetry in museum and gallery settings. She can be found most weekends hiking the coastal trails of West Marin.

Academic Appointments


  • Senior Lecturer, Center for Teaching and Learning

Administrative Appointments


  • Director, Oral Communication Program, VPUE (1996 - Present)
  • Interim Director, Hume Center for Writing and Speaking, VPUE (2016 - Present)

Current Research and Scholarly Interests


Poetics of the performed text, voice and gender, leadership communication, speaking in museum settings, pedagogy of aesthetic development, Readers' Theatre, healing and the arts, the rhetoric of stage presence

2023-24 Courses