Carole Ward Allen, is currently serving her third term as a member of the BART Board of Directors. Voters first elected her to the BART Board on November 3, 1998, to represent the 4th BART District, which includes the City of Alameda and portions of Oakland. She was first sworn into office on December 8, 1998.

She currently serves as the Chairperson of the Board's Planning, Public Affairs, Access & Legislation and Oakland Airport Connector - Coliseum Station Development Liaison committees. She's Vice Chairperson of the Board's Warm Springs Policy Committee and serves as a member of the District Security Advocacy Ad Hoc Committee.

On December 15, 2005, BART became the first major transit agency in American history to be led by two African American women after the nine member Board unanimously elected her to be its President and Director Lynette Sweet to be its Vice President. The positions are BART's most powerful posts. The term of Board President lasts one year.

Recently, Peralta Community College honored Director Ward Allen as its 2008 recipient of the President's Award during the District's annual dinner. Additionally, City Flight Magazine recently named her "One of the 30 Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area."

In 2005, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc Oakland/Bay Area Chapter honored her a its 7th Annual Madam C.J. Walker Business and Community Recognition Awards Luncheon and she also recently received a COMTO (Conference of Minority Transportation Officials) Recognition Award.

Director Ward Allen has served as Vice Chairperson of BART's Administration Committee and the District Security Advocacy Ad Hoc Committee, chairperson of the Fruitvale Policy Committee and the Oakland Airport Connector Liaison Committee. She has also served Alameda County Alternate for the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Board, and has been a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission AB 842 and the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority Consumer Policy Advisory Liaison Committees.

Director Ward Allen, who is a recent retiree, brings to the BART Board an extensive background in education, administration and community relations. She has served as Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Community Relations and Marketing for the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) Office. Prior to this, she served as a former College Administrator at Laney College, managing the largest Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Northern California, and monitoring a federal budget of $500,000, including the Office of Community Services, as well as several special grants and programs. She is currently a full time professor in the Ethnic Studies Department and assisted in initial curriculum development. In 2000, she assisted in the passage of Measure E, a $153 million capital improvement bond issue, and in 1986, passage of Measure B, a $50 million capital improvement bond issue.

Director Ward Allen served as president of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners from 1990 to 1992. She served on the board for 7 years and was responsible for businesses, financial, and political strategies for the development of maritime facilities, an international airport, and commercial real estate holdings budget of $100 million, accounting for directly or indirectly more than 44,000 jobs.

Dr. Carole Ward Allen holds a Master of Fine Arts degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose State University. Director Ward Allen studied Art at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and also Politics and Art of West Africa at Forah Bay College, Sierra Leone; University of Ile-Ife, Nigeria; the University of Kumasi, Ghana; and University of Nairobi, Kenya. She also earned a doctorate in higher education from Nova Southeastern University, Florida.