It’s Children’s Week at the Florida Capitol, and former Tallahassee Senator Loranne Ausley is the winner of this year’s Chiles Advocacy Award. The honor comes as Ausley makes an extraordinary recovery from a bad accident.
Today, the former Democratic lawmaker says she’s counting her blessings.
“I’m doing incredible. I’m so lucky to be here, frankly,” she says. “I was in a serious bike accident in early November, which was less than six months ago, and I was in a coma for almost a month, and in the hospital — between Atlanta and Panama City — for almost four months.”
Ausley was participating in an Ironman Triathlon in Bay County when she had the accident. She says she was in the best shape of her life — which helped her recover. She even participated in the Springtime Tallahassee run and last weekend’s 5K.
“It’s taking me longer than I would like, but…I got back to walking, got back to running slowly, you know, getting it all back,” she says.
Ausley is being honored for decades of child advocacy, especially in early childhood education and disability issues. She says she’s proud that the nonprofit Whole Child Leon, which she co-founded in 2004, helped the community understand the importance of investing in early childhood. She also believes it helped pave the way for the Children’s Services Council of Leon County.
“I’m proud of the work I did on disability issues as the mother of a child with blindness,” she says. “And in between, lots of Children and Parents Days, children’s cabinet — some little things and some big things. And I think: Making sure we’re always putting our children and families first. That’s what I’ve done in my life, and I want to keep doing that.”
Now, Ausley is the incoming board chair for the Institute for Child Success, a 30-state organization that works to improve outcomes for children.
