CONNECTICUT SUN’S TINA CHARLES EARNS DAWN STALEY COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD

Wed, Sep 10, 2025, 3:21 PM

NEW YORK, September 10, 2025 – The WNBA today announced Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles has been named the recipient of the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award, recognizing her extraordinary commitment to service, social justice, and creating lasting impact in the communities she serves.

Named for WNBA legend and Hall of Famer Dawn Staley, the award honors a current WNBA player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the community where they work or live. The award’s recipient embodies Staley’s spirit, leadership, charitable efforts, love for the game, and inspirational presence in their community.

This marks the second time Charles has earned the award – first in 2012 as a rising star, and now as a veteran leader whose impact and dedication have only deepened over time.

This year, Charles will reach a powerful milestone in her community work, placing the 500^th Automated External Defibrillator (AED) through her Hopey’s Heart Foundation. What began as a personal mission has grown into a life-saving legacy, fueled by her determination to ensure schools, recreation centers, and communities across the country have access to critical resources. Charles founded the Hopey’s Heart Foundation in 2013 in honor of her late aunt, Maureen “Hopey” Vaz, to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and provide AEDs to organizations in need.

Hopey’s Heart remains a family-run foundation, with Charles and her loved ones dedicating countless hours to outreach, research, education, and fundraising. This year, Yale New Haven Health pledged $20,000 to support AED distribution, enabling the foundation to reach the 500-device milestone.

Charles has also engaged fans through team-based initiatives, including a rebounding challenge that allowed supporters to pledge donations tied to her on-court performance. Beyond fundraising, she has been a visible ambassador for heart health, speaking at community events, health fairs, and awareness campaigns such as the American Heart Health Month.

“In every aspect of her game and character, Tina stands as a representation of the ideals and spirit of the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “Throughout her remarkable career, Tina has consistently used her platform to raise awareness and drive meaningful change. Her dedication to service, advocacy, and giving back to the community reflects the values that define our league. Tina continues to build a legacy that will inspire generations to come.”

Charles’ impact extends beyond Hopey’s Heart. In 2012, she personally funded the construction of a school in Mali, opening educational opportunities for hundreds of children. In New York City, Charles launched Hopey’s Week, a series of sports safety clinics focused on concussion prevention and injury awareness. She has also been a vocal advocate for racial and social justice, using her platform to elevate community voices and push for systemic change.

“Tina Charles exemplifies what it means to be a leader both on and off the court. We are thrilled to recognize her tireless efforts beyond the game over the course of her career, creating a profound and permanent impact within the entire sports community,” said Dawn Staley. “This award signifies the lasting legacy that leadership leaves behind. Tina embodies the values and hard work that continue to inspire her teammates, fellow athletes, fans, and members of her community.”

“Through my mother at a young age, I learned the importance of being a servant unto others, and receiving the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award is truly special for me — especially for Hopey’s Heart Foundation to receive this honor through its work in raising awareness for sudden cardiac arrest,” said Tina Charles. “I started the foundation in April of 2013 and never thought its impact would cast as wide as it has. I’m thankful to everyone who has supported the foundation along the way. Thank you.”

A designated committee selected Charles as the winner of the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award. The WNBA will make a $10,000 donation to Charles’ charitable foundation, Hopey’s Heart Foundation.

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Tina Charles’ charity, Hopey’s Heart Foundation, nears milestone for lifesaving AEDs

By DOUG FEINBERG • Published September 8, 2025

Connecticut Sun center and former UConn great Tina Charles has been helping to save countless lives for more than a decade with her charity — Hopey’s Heart Foundation.

On Saturday, the Connecticut Sun in partnership with Yale New Haven Health donated $20,000 to help Charles reach a milestone of donating 500 AEDs (automated external defibrillators). She’s 17 short right now. Each AED can cost thousands of dollars.

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“We’ll get there this fall now and I’m very thankful that the Lord chose me to be able to carry out this mission,” Charles told The Associated Press before the 87-84 win over Phoenix. “It’s really just my heart and been a blessing in memory of my late aunt.”

Charles teared up during the on-court presentation before the game as she was surprised by the donation.

The organization, started in 2013 and named in honor of her aunt, is dedicated to curbing deaths in the United States from sudden cardiac arrest. The organization works to ensure schools and public places have lifesaving equipment such as defibrillators on hand.

Yale New Haven Health was thrilled to help Charles reach the impressive milestone.

“We felt it was important as not only, a leading health care institution in this region, but also a supporter of everything of women’s sports, Tina Charles and the Connecticut Sun,” said Paul Mounds Jr., who is the Vice President of Community, Corporate and Government Relations for Yale New Haven Health.

Mounds Jr. said that his organization will also work with the American Heart Association to make sure that each group that receives an AED also gets heart health education alongside it.

The 36-year-old Charles said that before she started the foundation she didn’t realize how common and deadly sudden cardiac arrest could be until she read about Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player who suffered a heart attack and died after basketball practice in 2011.

And when her aunt died a few years later from organ failure, Charles committed herself to helping to solve the problem.

“To see my family on my aunt’s side surprise me and be supportive, I’m very thankful,” said Charles, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

Connecticut team president Jen Rizzotti has been impressed with what Charles has been able to do.

“It’s really inspirational. If I’m being honest. I think that’s what’s special about the WNBA is that impact the players make off the court and Tina has led the way for over a decade now,” Rizzotti said. “From the beginning when she donated her salary to her foundation, she really kind of understood the bigger picture.”

In 2017, when Charles was playing for the New York Liberty, she was surprised by the team by a man who was saved by one of the AEDs that the star had donated.

That moment has still left an impact on her years later.

Copyright AP – Associated Press