Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Region: Iraq

Mary Harvey

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Iraq
  • 2014  –  Jordan
  • 2015  –  Canada
  • 2015  –  Jordan
  • 2015  –  Egypt
  • 2016  –  Jordan

Mary Harvey is an accomplished and innovative sports development and governance executive with 10+ years leading initiatives to achieve societal change through sports. Mary’s initiatives have been launched and implemented around the world through a variety of organizations, having sustained impact in the empowerment of girls and women, inclusion of marginalized groups, stewardship of the environment and achievement of health and educational objectives.

Mary has served as a sport envoy for the US State Department’s SportsUnited on several occasions, including missions to Iraq in 2013 and Jordan in 2014. On both missions, the key objective was engaging key stakeholders via sport outreach to promote the inclusion and value of women and girls and to promote acceptance and integration of diverse ethnic groups.

A lifelong athlete, Mary enjoyed an 8-year career with the US Women’s National Soccer Team, winning the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 and Olympic Gold in 1996. Mary appeared, with her teammates, in the HBO sports documentary, “Dare to Dream”. Mary holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a BS from UC Berkeley.

Lorrie Fair

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Morocco
  • 2010  –  Paraguay
  • 2012  –  Afghanistan
  • 2012  –  Venezuela
  • 2013  –  Iraq
  • 2014  –  Burma
  • 2016  –  Nepal
  • 2018  –  Pakistan
  • 2020  –  Virtual
  • 2022  –  Cote d'Ivoire
  • 2023  –  Brunei

As an undergraduate student at Carolina, Lorrie Fair Allen helped the women’s soccer team to national championships in 1996, 1997 and 1999. During the same period of time, Allen was succeeding on the field globally, becoming a FIFA World Cup champion and an Olympic silver medalist in 2000.

These days, Allen, a mother of two boys under the age of five, works as a program director for the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project and volunteers as a sports envoy for the U.S. Department of State.

Her dual passion of soccer and advocacy began to take root when she arrived at Chapel Hill. The women’s soccer program is special, and one of coach Anson Dorrance’s goals is to build leaders, Allen said in a 2018 interview. “His biggest hope is that that extends beyond the soccer field.”

As a State Department sports envoy since 2008, Allen works to support the embassies’ diplomatic missions abroad by connecting with people from diverse cultures using a shared love for soccer. Allen also led a six-month expedition beginning in London and ending in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup as part of the organization, Kickabout, which she co-founded and self-funded.

At the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, Allen spearheads the foundation’s grantmaking. She seeks out and identifies community-based organizations in Southern Africa that engage young people to keep themselves and their peers safe from HIV and helps them apply for grants to support them in accomplishing their goals.

In 2016, Allen became a Carolina student once again, pursuing an online master’s degree in public administration through the School of Government.