Allen T. Stanton is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church. He currently serves as a consulting fellow with the University of the Ozark’s Thriving in Rural Ministry initiative. Additionally, he works at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he manages a $53 million initiative to expand access to oral health care in rural Tennessee. Stanton is the author of Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), which was named a “Top Ten Book of the Year” by the Academy for Parish Clergy.