Author: Tara Payor, Ph.D.

Tara Payor is a language arts educator and has taught students from the middle school level to adult learners at the doctorate level. She earned a Ph.D., in curriculum and instruction, from the University of South Florida. A member of the Junior League of Tampa and KNOW Women, she has two children—Harlow and Hendrix.
Liam Coen
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Life Behind Liam Coen’s Playbook: Football and Family with Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Offensive Coordinator

Learn all about how Liam Coen combines football and family in his busy life as an offensive coordinator coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Preventing Bullying

Standing Up Against Bullying

When Nick DeCastro, a 2024 graduate of Steinbrenner High School, organized a peer-led intervention with the students he observed bullying others, he earned recognition from the school’s resource officer, Deputy Anthony Bennett. He also received Hillsborough County’s Anti-Bullying Advisory Committee’s annual Anti-Bullying Award for his courageous stand against bullying. Recognizing and Preventing Bullying The Situation…

Clearwater Marine Aquarium Manatee Rehabilitation Center people looking at manatees
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Clearwater Marine Aquarium: Rescuing, Rehabilitating and Releasing Tampa Bay’s Gentle Giants

It takes a village to raise a child – a familiar adage for parents. The same holds true for manatee rescue and rehabilitation, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) is part of that village for Tampa Bay Area manatees. As of August 12, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Manatee Rehabilitation Center (MRC) is now open! Dr….

Dakayla Wison So you think you can dance
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Dakayla Wilson: Letting Kids Pave their Own Paths

Parenting is challenging, embodied work. Amidst society’s current culture of achievement, parenting’s challenges expand. Concurrently, kids’ autonomy and free time contract (to almost negligible levels). Of course parents want children to succeed. Within achievement culture, however, efforts are misguided and counterproductive. The mother of a competitive dancer and soccer player, I also am in achievement…

ZooTampa Manatee Critical Care Center
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ZooTampa’s Manatee Hat Trick: Rescue, Rehab, Release 

Manatees are among Tampa Bay’s natural gifts. Aquatic mammals and herbivores, manatees spend spring days swaying through our area’s warming waters. Endangered species, manatees don’t thrive in water colder than 68 degrees. With no natural predators, cold temperatures and boat propellors are manatees’ greatest threats. Through more than 20 years of life-saving work, ZooTampa’s world-renowned…

Jason Licht Family Interview
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Licht Style: It all Works Out 

Jason Licht, renowned Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ General Manager (a position he’s held since 2014), is, foremost, a dad and husband. With wife Blair, he navigates the peaks, valleys and predominantly uncertain terrain of parenting. They met during his tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, when she lived in Manhattan working in finance. Over six years, they…

Full Circle Moments with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders
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Full Circle Moments with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders and Junior Cheerleaders

There’s something extraordinary about a life-comes-full-circle moment. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleader Shay Garcia had such a moment when her daughter, Johanna, stepped onto the Raymond James turf as a Bucs Junior Cheerleader. Shay and Johanna share their TBBC experiences. Kaylee Strobel, a former Junior Cheerleader and current Buccaneers’ Cheerleading and Mascot Coordinator, also knows full-circle moments with the Bucs. Before firing the canons, read their firsthand accounts about TBBC’s lasting impacts.

Hispanic Heritage in Tampa Bay
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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: Two local moms share their deep roots in Tampa Bay

National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Tampa is rich with Hispanic Heritage. Two Tampa moms, originally from Puerto Rico, share details about their roots and raising their own children with Hispanic heritage in Tampa Bay.

Big John's journey
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Meet the LaFace Family of RIPA & Associates, presenting sponsors of Big John the Triceratops

Chris LaFace, president and CEO at RIPA & Associates, along with his wife, Angela (a critical care surgeon who recently paused her career for increased family time), made a groundbreaking donation and support the Big John exhibit as presenting sponsors.