Cheryl Allen
Dr. Cheryl Lynn Allen, of Atlanta, Georgia, passed away on Monday, January. 29, 2018.
Dr. Allen was a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee and the fourth of five children born to the late Dr. Oscar and Elizabeth Rucker Allen, who were both educators in the Chattanooga Public School System. Cheryl was a 1977 graduate of Brainerd High School where she excelled both academically and athletically. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 from Clark College and a master's in Business Administration from Atlanta University in 1983. Dr. Allen earned her CPA accreditation in 1986, and a doctorate in Accountancy from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia in 1998.
Dr. Allen began her professional career as an auditor with the public accounting firm, Ernst and Whinney, CPAs (now Ernst and Young CPAs) in the Atlanta office, and was certified as an accountant (CPA) in the state of Georgia. She joined the faculty of Morehouse College as an instructor after spending five years with Ernst, where she remained for 25 years, successfully achieving the rank of full professor and the first female dean of the Business Administration and Economics unit of the college. Dr. Allen contributed throughout her career to the accounting profession and to the academic community through her volunteerism, commitment, and dedication to small business, community outreach, neighborhood development and mentoring. Dr. Allen also served on the SAGE peer review board and serves as a member of the City of Atlanta Audit Committee. Other service to the profession included serving as a reviewer for the AICPA Legacy Scholarship committee, a three-year appointment to the Minority Initiatives Committee for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), serving as chair of the faculty subcommittee for two of the three years, and elected president and council representative for the Diversity Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA), the national association of accounting academics.
Dr. Allen’s past community service included her three-term service on the board of directors of the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, financial advisor to the Southside Community Development Corporation, and financial consultant to the Atlanta Committee for Public Education, the Historic District Development Corporation, and the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Corporation. Dr. Allen completed competitive faculty fellowships with Morgan Stanley Bank, New York, and The Boeing Company, Seattle Washington. She was a charter member of the African-American Accounting Doctoral Association (now AHNADA) founded and sponsored by the accounting firm KPMG and the PhD Project, an AICPA Doctoral Fellow, and a Kettering Public Scholar. She was a member of the national fraternities of Beta Alpha Psi, (accounting), Beta Gamma Sigma (business), and Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership). She was a former member of the Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
She is survived by a loving and devoted family, brother, Michael R. (Charleen) Allen; sisters, Dr. Vikki Allen, Valeria Allen, and Jennifer (Charles) Gore; loving aunt, Mrs. Mary B. Tull, aunt Willena Samples, of Nashville; and uncle Jimmie (Linda) Allen.
The body will lie in state from 12-8:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5, at the funeral home. The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's Omega Omega Ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. in the funeral home chapel on Monday.
Funeral services will be held at noon on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church, 1734 East 3rd Street, Chattanooga, TN 37404. The body will lie in state at the church on Tuesday, beginning at 10 a.m., and the family will receive friends at 11 a.m.
Interment will be in Forest Hills Cemetery.
Arrangements are by John P. Franklin Funeral Home, 1101 Dodds Ave., 622-9995.