Caleen Burton-Allen is Executive Vice President of Sisters Network Inc., the nation’s largest and only national Black breast cancer survivorship organization, where she leads the organization’s national strategic partnerships, fund development, and programmatic vision — driving the innovative educational and outreach initiatives that advance breast health awareness and survivorship equity across the Black community. Her leadership has been central to expanding SNI’s national footprint and deepening its impact on the communities it serves. She is also the host of SNI’s award-winning podcast, SIS: Sisters In Survivorship.
A strategic communications and marketing change agent with over 30 years of experience, Burton-Allen has built a career spanning fund development, corporate communications, stakeholder engagement, strategic partnerships, community relations, and DEI strategy. She is widely recognized as an exceptional relationship and coalition builder, with deep ties to elected officials, corporate leaders, civic advocates, and faith-based leaders at the local, state, and national level.
Prior to SNI, Burton-Allen served as Vice President of Development and Communications at Hermann Park Conservancy, leading fund development and communications strategy. She spent over a decade in senior leadership at Houston Independent School District (HISD) as General Manager, Strategic Partnerships, which included oversight of the HISD Foundation, and led community engagement efforts citywide.
Her communications career also includes media relations leadership at the Port of Houston Authority and Spectra Energy, crisis communications consulting for Nixon & Associates, and executive media training for C-Suite leaders at Spaeth Communications. She spent over 10 years as a broadcast journalist, beginning her career as a general assignment reporter before transitioning into corporate and crisis communications.
As an entrepreneur, Burton-Allen is President of Allen Communications Group (ACG), an M/WBE-certified strategic communications and public relations firm. She is also the former publisher and founder of OnyxStyle Magazine, an award-winning quarterly lifestyle publication reaching over 100,000 readers across Houston’s Black community.
A dedicated champion of the Houston community, Burton-Allen has served on the boards of the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce, the Houston Children’s Festival, Julia C. Hester House, and the Hightower High School Media Advisory Board, and has volunteered with the Houston Minority Business Council, the Museum of Fine Arts Five–A Council, the Houston Urban League PR Committee, and the UNCF PR Committee.
Her many honors include the YMCA Minority Achiever Award, DMARS Magazine’s Top 25 Women in Houston, the IMPACT Award from Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Rolling Out Magazine’s “Forty Under Forty” and Top 25 Women in Houston, the Pioneer in Journalism Award from Delta Sigma Theta-Houston, and the Black Women in Journalism Trailblazer Award from HABJ, among others.
Burton-Allen is a graduate of California State University, Northridge, with a degree in Broadcast Journalism, and a graduate of the Center for Houston’s Future Leadership Fellows program. Her professional affiliations include the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is an active member of the Houston Chapter of The Links, Inc. and an associate member of Jack and Jill of America–Houston Chapter.
