Articles

April 2025 Keynote Session Speaker

Topic: "Park With A Purpose."

April Allen
President & CEO
Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation
April Allen serves as the President and CEO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, where she is spearheading the creation of Halperin Park, a transformative initiative bridging West and East Oak Cliff over Interstate 35E near the Dallas Zoo. With deep community roots in Oak Cliff, April blends her business expertise and nonprofit leadership to drive impactful change in Southern Dallas.

Educated in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and holding an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, April is also an alumna of Leadership Dallas and The OpEd Project at the Texas Women's University Public Voices Thought Leadership Institute. Her leadership has been recognized with the DCEO Leadership Excellence Award in 2022, and she was honored as one of 100 Texans poised to make a significant impact on the state by the Dallas Business Journal in 2024.

Originally from Toronto, Canada, April has proudly called Oak Cliff home for two decades alongside her husband Sean. They are active members of the Concord Church and take pride in parenting their sons, August and Ellis.