EP 61: LOVE IN AMERICA: Friendship Is The Foundation Of Lasting Love

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, and this very special episode of “Love in America” features a couple worth celebrating! Andrew Warren, State Attorney of Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, is the face of criminal justice in Tampa Bay. Alexandra (Alex) Warren is an attorney and the founder of the nonprofit, Listening Matters. A chance meeting at college brought them together, starting a relationship that has spanned almost 25 years. Now, Andrew and Alex are “On The Record With Sarina Fazan” to share their story of lasting love!

Married for 14 years – and dating on and off for 10 years prior – the couple has a long history. Andrew and Alex first met in August 1995 at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, when they were just 18 years old. They lived in buildings that were across a small pond from each other, meeting on Andrew’s first day on campus!

Andrew and Alex dated throughout college, breaking up when Andrew moved across the “big pond” to England in his junior year. But fate would bring them back together, and they rekindled their relationship while they both attended law school in New York. After living on different sides of the United States for their clerkships, the couple decided to get serious.

Andrew recalls, “When I came back to the east coast, we got back in touch with each other. At that point, Alex went ‘if we’re doing this, we’re doing this for real!’”

That decision led to the couple moving to Washington, D.C. in 2006 to be together, and they were married soon after. Andrew served a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice, while Alex joined Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca as a litigator.

Their careers flourished, but Andrew’s position necessitated a great deal of travel. With the pressures of work and a growing family, the Warrens decided that a change was needed. It was time to return to Florida, where Andrew was born and raised. In 2012, when their daughter Elliot was just 18 months old, they moved to Tampa, a place where they planned to establish roots.

Alex explains, “I just wanted to start that part of our lives, where we’re just raising our kids, and this is where we’re going to be. I didn’t want to feel transient anymore.”

In 2013, their second daughter, Lucy, was born and was diagnosed with profound hearing loss when she was one month old.  After undergoing genetic testing, Lucy was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome, a rare disorder that affects hearing, vision, and sometimes balance. She has worn cochlear implants since she was a baby.

Andrew says, “As a parent, it’s a devastating diagnosis. You worry about how is she going to deal in the world, what’s going to happen as she grows up. There’s just so many thoughts and fears that go through your mind. And, candidly, I sort of just feel into a shell, being really worried about her and what that meant for her. And Alex got to work.”

Alex founded a nonprofit organization called Listening Matters in 2015, with the goal of connecting children with hearing loss and their families in the Tampa Bay area. She also wanted to share what she learned on Lucy’s diagnostic journey with other families, helping them navigate the medical, therapeutic, educational, and social issues around hearing loss. The nonprofit hosts educational and social events in the Tampa Bay area, and you can support them at https://listening-matters.org/.

The Warren family also strives to raise more awareness for Usher Syndrome and the research efforts to cure it.

“We are such a team. That’s how I feel in my life. Because we’ve had so many moments where it felt life shattering,” Alex describes.

She continues, “We’ve had a lot of hard times, and I’m so grateful that I have him. Because even with all of those things, I wake up and I am grateful for the good things. So grateful. I know we’re lucky.”

Andrew says, “Before we got married, I was given the advice that, no matter what happens in our lives, professionally, as parents, we were a couple first. That’s the foundation of a healthy relationship. And I think that Alex and I, through the ups and downs of life, and through professional wins and losses, and through personal tragedy, through all these things, we’ve always come back to the friendship that we have.”

Andrew was elected as State Attorney of Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, in November 2016 and re-elected in November 2020 – with Alex by his side.

For more information about State Attorney Andrew Warren and the work of the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office, visit https://www.sao13th.com/.

For more discussions like this one, make sure to subscribe to the podcast “On The Record With Sarina Fazan."

Sarina Fazan’s dry cleaning and laundry provided by ZIPS Dry Cleaners (www.321zips.com/tampa).

Sarina Fazan’s hair styling is courtesy of Blow Bar Express (blowbarexpress.com).

Marc Marino, a financial advisor with Edward Jones, sponsors the “Let’s Spread Kindness” initiative and the “On The Record With Sarina Fazan” podcast.

To learn more about Marc Marino, visit his website at www.EdwardJones.com/financial-advisor/index.html?CIRN=J8Xt82uMZ5PTkAAfJx0rPPELPdflNeOixbnYxMnYXdXnKX7BL7zz5t8tIJl5Do72.

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