About Ben Allatt



Ben was born in the City of Philadelphia in August of 1976. His father was a pastor of a church in Northeast Philadelphia. He is the middle child of three boys, and his mother was a stay at home mom until his younger brother went to school. Early on in Ben’s youth, his family moved to Somerville, NJ where he spent most of his school age years. During his high school years, his family moved to Rochester, NY. Ben completed high school in Rochester and attended college at Virginia Wesleyan College and ultimately Messiah College where he completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Resource Management.

Upon graduating from Messiah, Ben began a career in recruiting and within a year of graduating, he moved into the city of Harrisburg and has lived there ever since. Ben purchased a home in Midtown in 2001, and still lives there today.

Ben Allatt has over 15 years of experience in the Human Resource Profession with a large emphasis on recruiting and over four years of leadership experience at the executive level. He spent a good portion of his career working on executive searches for clients across the nation with a large emphasis on working with the public sector including cities, counties and state governments. This experience enabled him to understand a bit more about how municipal governments work, both the good and the more challenging. His career has included providing recruitment services within Academia, Technology, Sales, Marketing, Healthcare professionals, and Executive Recruitment in the public and private sector. He has been involved with placing hundreds of individuals in positions both locally and nationally.

Ben currently serves as Associate Vice President of Human Resources for Harrisburg University, where he is responsible for administering HR services to the university community. He is especially proud of the how quickly the university is growing and creating sustainable jobs in the heart of downtown Harrisburg while providing a resource for students to be educated in the STEM area.

Throughout his career, he has obtained ongoing training in recruiting techniques and HR Practices. In addition to Recruiting, Ben has developed Employee Recognition Programs, Training and Orientation Programs, as well as Employee Satisfaction Surveys. One of Ben’s passions is working with diversity and inclusion programs. He has played an integral role in making diversity a priority both in the workplace and in the community. He has also developed diversity recruiting strategies for organizations to implement.

Diversity and inclusion has been a passion of Ben’s for as long as he can remember. He often wondered how that would fit into his professional career, but it became clear as he developed recruiting strategies both internally and for his clients. Diversity was an important component to any organization from both a recruiting standpoint as well as from a retention viewpoint. Ben firmly believes that the dimensions of diversity run deep and that there are many facets that contribute to an inclusive environment and as such creates a much more dynamic environment. Ben was able to work with organizations across the country during his executive search experience to apply these principles and help organizations understand the importance of a diverse workforce. Locally, Ben has served on the Board of the Human Resource Professionals of Central PA as a liaison focused on Diversity and is currently the President. During this time, Ben has developed presentations on various topics pertaining to diversity and inclusion and has participated on several panel discussions.

Ben is a graduate of Leadership Harrisburg Area’s Community Leadership program. This valuable experience enabled Ben to understand a bit more about both the history and the present demographics that make up Harrisburg and the surrounding region.

Additionally, Ben has served on the Board of Open Stage of Harrisburg from 2009 to 2015 and served as President from 2012 to 2014. He feels strongly about the importance of the role the arts play in the community.

Ben has also been very active in the LGBT community dating back to 2006, where he began volunteering with Common Roads, a youth advocacy arm of the LGBT Community Center Coalition of Central PA. In January of 2012, Ben joined the Board of the Capital Region Stonewall Democrats and is currently serving as President. Ben has been active on panels and numerous discussions on being an “out” professional in the community. Ben was also recognized by the Central Penn Business Journal in 2013 as one of the region’s “Top 40 Under 40”.

Ben became an elected Democratic Committee Man in 2009 and in 2013 Ben ran for a seat on Harrisburg City Council. He was elected in 2013 and was sworn in as a member of City Council in January 2014. Ben has enjoyed serving the community of Harrisburg on City Council and he has been committed to responsible government that is focused on checks and balances and financial integrity and transparency.

Ben maintains his home in midtown Harrisburg with his fiance, Stephen. In addition to the two of them, they have one dog, Reese, a beloved chocolate lab, and two cats, Layla, and Bode Miller.

Ben and Stephen have both been committed to investing both personally and professionally in the Harrisburg community and are proud to call the city home. They are both members of Market Square Presbyterian Church. Both are transplants to the city, and love the sense of community in Harrisburg, and cannot imagine living anywhere else.