For Karise Allen-Crew, walking down Germantown Avenue feels like "opening up a gift" - each storefront offering something unique and special. As the new marketing and communications coordinator for the Chestnut Hill Business District, she says she's eager to help unwrap those gifts for others.

"I've been there," Allen-Crew says. "I know what it's like to own a business. I know what it's like to have support or not have support."

Since mid-November, Allen-Crew has been working with the Business District to better understand the needs of local businesses, and help them strengthen their branding and communication efforts across their websites and social media.

Though she lives in Bala Cynwyd and was familiar with Chestnut Hill before taking the job, Allen-Crew says she didn't fully appreciate all the neighborhood had to offer beyond occasional stops at Adelina's for avocado salad and champagne. Now, her perspective has transformed.

"I am just so astonished with this area now," Allen-Crew says. "I was already in love with it, but now I have a whole new appreciation."

Allen-Crew's new position is designed to support and strengthen the members of the Chestnut Hill Business Association (CHBA), a membership organization that serves its constituents' business needs. Founded in 1956, the CHBA includes more than 200 members such as retailers, restaurateurs, dentists, and doctors.

Allen-Crew arrived at the Business District with an extensive background in marketing and entrepreneurship. Originally from Illinois, she spent the first part of her childhood with her grandparents, who owned a farm, a church and a thrift shop. These early experiences gave her a foundation grounded in community, she says. 

Allen-Crew's mother then moved the family to Dallas, Texas, where the young entrepreneur fell in love with storytelling. Her first opportunities came in television and newspaper reporting, but she soon found another outlet: photography.

“I saw [photography] as a way to merge journalism and entrepreneurship, capturing and sharing stories in a way that truly resonated with others,” says Allen-Crew.

It was higher education - specifically at the University of the Arts and Cheyney University of Pennsylvania – that brought Allen-Crew to the Philadelphia area. She studied communications on a full-ride scholarship at Cheyney and then went on to develop her own consultant company, K.Len Creative and Studio5311, which offered marketing, branding, and photography to a list of clients that included, among others, Match.com, La Salle University, and The Bellevue Hotel.

Beyond her professional work, Allen-Crew has dedicated time to teaching fifth and sixth graders in Texas and then in the Philadelphia School District, as well as leading summer and after-school programs. 

With her husband, Jerel, she also co-founded a nonprofit business That Gun Talk, which teaches firearm safety. Allen-Crew says the motivation to form this business came after a traumatic experience. 

“I was robbed five feet from a police station,” Allen-Crew says. “[My husband] got very nervous and wanted me to carry every day…I didn’t really know anything about it.”

Since Allen-Crew did not know the ins and outs of firearm safety, Jerel was inspired to form That Gun Talk. That business, she said, is now doing well enough that she can step away and leave day-to-day operations to Jerel. 

In the few weeks Allen-Crew has worked for the Business District, she says she has already met plenty of new people in addition to her bosses, Courtney O'Neill and Kate O'Neill. Meeting the local business owners in particular has proven to be the most rewarding experience so far.

"Getting to know [the business owners] and their stories, I think that's been one of the most exciting things for me," Allen-Crew says. "Walking in their shop, seeing what they have to offer, and just being able to have the opportunity to care for them."

She finds that her fellow employees at the Business District have a lot to offer.

"I've only been here two weeks, but the passion, the vigor, the drive that not only do the business owners have, but we all have," Allen-Crew says. "We all come together and incorporate our gifts to help them shine."

Outside of her time helping local businesses, Allen-Crew says she enjoys spending time with her husband and four children, reading, and traveling. One of her favorite travel destinations is Ethiopia, where she spent time photographing the country and putting together a book to raise funds for a water irrigation system and school system. She finds great meaning in helping others.

"I really do like to get involved in things that are meaningful," Allen-Crew says. "That's why this job [at the Chestnut Hill Business District] is so important to me, because there's a mission and a cause behind the community. Local businesses need support, love, care and understanding.”