Marshan Allen is the founder of Rising Phoenix Consultants. He is the Director of Policy and Communications at the Illinois Prison Project (IPP), where he leads initiatives to reduce incarceration and advocate for a fairer, more equitable legal system.

At age 15, Marshan was sentenced to mandatory life without parole. He served nearly 25 years in prison before being released in 2016 following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Miller v. Alabama, which deemed mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles unconstitutional.

Since his release, Marshan has become a leading advocate for youth and criminal justice reform. He was appointed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission and serves on the Illinois Judicial Conference's Emerging Adult Task Force, the Transition Team for the Office of the Statewide Public Defender (FAIR Act), and the Board of Directors of Cabrini Green Legal Aid. In May 2026, he graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law as an Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Public Interest Law Scholar and sat for the Illinois bar exam — believed to be the first former juvenile lifer to graduate law school and sit for the bar.

He brings to every engagement the perspective of someone who has experienced the justice system as a child, worked to reform it as an advocate and policymaker, and now practices at the intersection of law and lived experience.

That combination — lived experience and legal training — is why Marshan founded Rising Phoenix Consultants: to put what he's learned to work for institutions and communities ready to do things differently. “Our experience is our expertise.”