Marvella Allen

  • Marvella Allen

    Marvella R. Allen is the Director of Whole Child Supports for Columbus City Schools. She believes in prioritizing the needs of the whole child by focusing on the Ohio Department of Education’s five tenets to ensure students are: healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. As Director of Whole Child Supports, Allen overseas the School Social Work Program, School Counseling Program, Social Emotional and Student Support Programs, Mental Health Partnerships, and the District Care Team. She is a Trauma, Restorative Practices, Social Emotional Learning, and Suicide Prevention Trainer and serves as the district liaison to Franklin County’s Suicide Prevention Coalition. Allen also holds an Advanced Certificate in Serving Veterans and their Families and is a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Facilitator. 

    Previously, Allen served as a CCS School Social Worker with assignments in over 30 CCS buildings and as Supervisor of the CCS School Social Work Program. 

    Prior to joining Columbus City Schools, Allen’s professional mental health experience included providing therapy and support to pregnant and parenting teens, sexually abused children, foster placed youth, and juvenile justice involved youth. She also served as a Day Treatment Clinician, providing classroom based, therapy and crisis intervention to students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. 

    Allen believes in the power of positive relationships and the dignity and worth of all people. She is an intentional leader with a culturally responsive, collaborative, and unifying vision.  

    Allen graduated, cum laude, from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work, a minor in Spanish, and a Master of Clinical Social Work with dual specialization in Children & Families and School Social Work.  She is a Licensed Independent Social Worker with a Supervisory Endorsement (LISW-S) for the State of Ohio. She is currently working on her Doctorate in Educational Leadership with a special interest in Equity in Urban Education.  

    Allen has been with Columbus City Schools since 2003.