Lauren Dungy- Woman of Impact Award Recipient

Lauren Dungy has been a vibrant part of the Tampa Bay landscape since arriving here in 1996. While her life is full as wife and mother of eleven children, her passion for her community and her love for people, spills over into a variety charitable projects that revolve around three central themes —Christian outreach, education, and children.

A woman of deep faith, Lauren is a member of Grace Family Church where she is involved in children’ s ministries, leading bible studies and Grace's community outreach. In 2012 she launched the Iron Sharpeners, a running group dedicated to helping women develop physically and spiritually. She has led them in competing in numerous running and triathlon events.

Lauren is a former elementary school teacher who is passionate about education. As Vice President of The Dungy Family Foundation, which helps meet the educational, social and spiritual needs of the underserved, she created and launched the foundation's reading program, through which volunteers visit elementary schools and community centers to read and donate books. She and her husband Tony regularly visit Title 1 schools in the Tampa area to read to, engage and inspire our younger students.

With eleven children of her own, it is clear that Lauren loves kids, and she is passionate about doing all she can to help. In addition to her involvement with her church’ s children’ s ministry and Foundation’ s reading program, she and Tony are co-authors of eleven children’ s books. Their first book, You Can Be A Friend, is a New York Times best-seller and winner of the 2012 NAACP Image Award. Lauren’ s dedication to local children led her to partner with Tanya Kimble of WeeSeeU to develop a ministry to area students from elementary through college. This organization provides support, mentoring, supplies, and scholarship assistance to students throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Lauren is also a devoted advocate for the Florida Foster Care system. Besides being a foster parent herself, she spends countless hours speaking and raising awareness for foster care and adoption in the area. She and Tony are currently writing a book that will inspire and guide others in ways to love and care for children in our community.

In addition to all of these activities, Lauren still finds time to volunteer at Tampa Bay area schools and speak at local churches, women’ s events, and other fund-raisers.

Born Lauren Harris in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Lauren graduated from Quaker Valley High School. She earned her degree from Duquesne University in Elementary Education and then taught school in her hometown for six years. While teaching, she met her husband, Tony Dungy, then an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. He would go on to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, later the Indianapolis Colts and currently NBC analyst. Football would take their family from Pittsburgh to Kansas City, to Minneapolis, and finally to Tampa where they currently reside. The Dungys are the parents of daughters Tiara, Jade and Jaela, and sons James, Eric, Jordan, Justin, Jason, Jalen, Jaden, and Juewel.