Dr. Allen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Exercise Physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Allen followed his PhD by completing a 3-year postdoctoral program in microbiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Allen’s research program concentrates on specific environmental interventions and conditions— 1. Exercise 2. Psychological Stress and 3. Diet—that influence gut microbial communities (the gut microbiota) during both homeostatic and pathological disease states. Ultimately, Dr. Allen’s lab is aiming to provide a new perspective into how environmental conditions interact to modify the gut microbiota, with the ultimate goal of leveraging this knowledge to improve human health.