People to KNOW in Tampa Bay

We know that Tampa Bay is special and a big part of what makes this area an amazing place to live is the people. We’re introducing you to kids and adults whose stories you should know. This is not a ‘pay for play’ list like those published by some other sites and magazines. We are simply featuring people who are doing incredible things in our community and deserve the recognition. Let’s dive in and meet your extraordinary Tampa Bay neighbors!

Liam Coen
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Life Behind Liam Coen’s Playbook: Football and Family with Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Offensive Coordinator

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

Jarod Curley with the American Ballet Theatre returns to The Straz for the Next Generation Ballet's Nutcracker in December.
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Next Generation Ballet alumnus Jarod Curley returns for Nutcracker at The Straz

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We’re catching up with Jarod Curley, an alumnus of Next Generation Ballet who now dances with the American Ballet Theatre. He is returning to The Straz as a guest star dancer in the 2024 production of Nutcracker.

Tarpon Springs Leadership Conservatory
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From Shared Values to Lasting Impact: A Journey of Excellence and Leadership at Tarpon Springs High School

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It began as a chance meeting nearly thirty years ago at a Drum Corps International championship, which set the stage for an enduring partnership. He was there composing music; she was competing with a color guard group. A year later, Kevin and Jeannine Ford were married, beginning a lifelong journey of purpose together. Tarpon Springs…

Tampa Bay Sun FC players on field in Tampa
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Tampa Bay Sun FC: Ready to Kick Off a History-Making Season

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The Tampa Bay Sun Football Club is kicking off its inaugural season this Sunday, August 18, bringing the highest level of professional women’s sports ever to the Tampa Bay Area. We’re getting to know head coach Denise Schilte-Brown as we talk women’s sports, motherhood, and her love of Tampa Bay.

Lemonade Stand Fundraisers Sailor Garfield, Anderson O’Kelley, Reagan Leung, Ruby Nolan, Haydon Swanson
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Kids to Know: Sailor Garfield, Anderson O’Kelley, Reagan Leung, Ruby Nolan, Haydon Swanson

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In preparation for summer break, most students across Tampa Bay anticipate what the season means for them: vacation travel, athletic camps, beach days, pool time, late nights and no homework. But for five rising sixth and seventh grade girls, this was the time to host their fourth annual lemonade stand to raise money for local…

Ambika Agrawal
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Moms to Know: Ambika Agrawal, Ambika Photography

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In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, a wand is a conduit that brings out the energy of a magical person and manifests it in the physical world in the shape of what they may be casting or creating. This is also true for Ambika Agrawal and her camera, a tool that blends the creative…

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

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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…

St. John’s Episcopal school 3rd & 4th grade
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Kids to Know: St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School Grades 3 & 4

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In collaboration with Rise Against Hunger and St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School, the Taylor Koulouris Foundation made it possible for students to pack 12,500 meals that will feed 347 children in Haiti each for an entire school year. As third and fourth graders at the school, our Kids to Know share their experience.  …

Omar Germany cancer survivor Tampa
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Kids to Know: Omar Germany

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Cancer. It was a word the Germanys never expected to hear when they brought their 12-year-old son to a medical professional for answers about a mass growing in his cheek. In 2020, Omar Jr. was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer. With great fortitude and unwavering faith, Omar began a lengthy fight with his…

Jessica Payne Tampa
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Moms to Know Jessica Payne: Sweatology Studio, Undressed Tans

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Every child is truly a treasure, and for most, pregnancy is a gift. However, after navigating a journey through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy to welcome her two children, Lenny (6) and Bowie (3), Jessica Payne could have never predicted the miracle waiting to unfold years later. As this local mom announces the arrival…

Dr. Jamie Decker and his family
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Meet Dr. Decker: Father of 5 and Cardiologist

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Dr. Jamie Decker is a dedicated father of five who juggles the demands of his medical career with the joys of fatherhood. Decker is passionate about both of the hats that he wears as a dad and a cardiologist in the Heart Institute at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, where he specializes in electrophysiology. “It’s…

Caroline and Charlotte Gallagher of C&C Lemonade Factory
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Kids to Know: Caroline and Charlotte Gallagher, C&C Lemonade Factory

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This June marks the 20th anniversary of the first Lemonade Days, a tradition that was started by 8-year-old Alex Scott, founder of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, to help doctors help kids like her who were fighting cancer. Before Alex passed away in 2004, she knew that Lemonade Days raised $1 million for childhood cancer, and it…

St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Pagidipati Family donation
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St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation Receives Historic $50 Million Gift from the Pagidipati Family of Tampa

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From humble beginnings to a monumental $50 million donation, the Pagidipati family’s gift to St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation is a heartwarming testament to their commitment to children’s health and the Tampa community’s future.

Bhavna Kanakia
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Moms to Know: Bhavna Kanakia

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Just as the lotus emerges from muddy waters to bloom into a beautiful flower, the story of Bhavna Kanakia is one of growth and transcendence. Rather than remaining in her birth country of India, among the familiar ceremonies that honor the cultural symbolism of the lotus, she resolved instead to expand an offering of superb…

Entertainment Revue Empowers Young Voices in the Performing Arts for 34 Years cover

Entertainment Revue Empowers Young Voices in the Performing Arts for 34 Years

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Like a trending remix of a favorite 90’s song, Tina Novak Robles involvement with Entertainment Revue has come full-circle in the most harmonious way. As a member of the founding cast of the singing ensemble, Tina is now the Creative Director of the group that is celebrating 34 years of show-stopping singing and dancing acts,…

Danielle Bayard Jackson
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Moms to Know: Danielle Bayard Jackson, Friendship Coach, Educator & Author

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With schedules that are packed with playdates, sports, school, and the many other ways we socialize our kids, what, then, is left for us parents who also dream of a Monica to our Rachel? This is where a Friendship Coach comes in.

Gorrie Elementary School Tampa
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Kids to Know: The Students of Gorrie Elementary School in Tampa

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When Gorrie Elementary School mother Haylie Katz discovered Bess the Book Bus, she immediately thought of her children’s school community. With a committed PTA team that partners with nonprofits monthly to teachers who encourage students’ kindness potential, this neighborhood school has nurtured many standout kids to know.   How did collecting for Bess the Book…

Mike and Brian Kleinschmidt
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Tampa Bay’s Dream Couple: Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt of HGTV’s “100 Day Dream Home”

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Long before Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt were hosts of the popular HGTV series “100 Day Dream Home,” they were classmates at Riverview High School. Now married for eight years, living in their own dream home in Ruskin, and raising Mika’s 14-year-old daughter, Jade, together, they’re reflecting on their journey and looking ahead to an exciting new year.

Bayshore Christian Fourth Grade
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Kids to Know: Bayshore Christian School’s Fourth Grade Class

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Every fall at Bayshore Christian School, the fourth grade classes gather to plan for a market. The products, packaging and prices are determined individually by each nine and ten year old student. However, they decide collectively how the profits from the project will be used. While they learned how to execute a successful business, they…

Lauren Suttell, LJ Aesthetics
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Moms to Know: Lauren Suttell, LJ Aesthetics

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Have you ever heard the saying “in a world full of Kardashians, be an Audrey (Hepburn)?” When it comes to raising girls in today’s world, I am reassured that there are women in the aesthetics field that promote a graceful approach to aging that enhances natural inner and outer beauty—much like the iconic faces before…

Hustle Sanely Jess Massey
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Say goodbye to burnout with help from local mama, Jess Massey, founder of Hustle Sanely

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As we get ready to step into a new year, a time when many of us look to reset, we’re introducing you to a local mom who has been right where you are—smack dab in the middle of burnout. Jess Massey not only found her way out, but she developed a planner and system to help other women find their path to a more “peacefully productive” life.

Juliette Feld Grossman shares the story behind the NEW Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
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Juliette Feld Grossman shares the story behind the NEW Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

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The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is roaring back to life in an ALL-NEW reimagined show and we’re chatting with Juliette Feld Grossman, who teamed up with her father to produce The Greatest Show on Earth, to talk about the evolution of the show.

Sadie Dixon
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Kids to Know: Sadie Dutton

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Through the Children’s Dream Fund, I have had the incredible honor of connecting with a family that has endured so much. When the chances of survival were statistically low, where the critical number of perfectly matched stem cells were extraordinarily high, Sadie can say today that her battle is won. Because of the grace of…

Giselle Mcnab The SIS Project.Org
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Moms to Know: Giselle Mcnab – Author, Speaker, Founder of The SIS Project.Org

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From a challenging childhood in New York City to troubled teen years marked by resilience and survival, Giselle McNab’s path to motherhood has taken her from darkness to enlightenment. With a remarkable account of breaking a cycle of abuse, the inspiration behind her book, and her mission to empower women and teen girls through her…

Jason Licht Family Interview
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Licht Style: It all Works Out 

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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…