A Proud Tar Heel Returns

More than a decade after she graduated from Carolina as a three-time national champion on the women’s soccer team — and after a playing on teams that won the 1999 FIFA World Cup and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics — Lorrie Fair Allen is back at Carolina.

Allen, who earned degrees in communication and mathematics, works as a State Department sports envoy and also as the program director for the Charlize Theron’s Africa Outreach Project, a foundation the actress started in 2007 to encourage the prevention of HIV for African youth. Allen came back to Carolina — to earn a master’s degree in Public Administration — so she can better serve others in both of those roles. And as a resident of California, the School of Government’s MPA@UNC online program allows her to keep a full-time job while raising her two sons.

“This MPA will prepare me for life,” said Allen. “It’s preparing me for how to attack the advocacy side, the policy side. I know it’s going to help me be better at my job. This program is really special. I’m really proud of being a Tar Heel.”

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This is story number 156 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

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