When she first became a marine scientist, Tiara Moore, Ph.D., didn't feel like she could be out as pansexual. She had remained in the closet throughout her academic pursuits, and most people assumed she was straight.
In professional settings, recalled Moore, once the white lab coat goes on, the focus primarily is on one's work and not their individuality or public life.
"The humanity of the scientist is lost," said Moore, 35, who grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina and didn't come out publicly until 2020 at age 31.
It led to her being included in a groundbreaking exhibit about queer scientists that debuted at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park during Pride Month in June 2021, which the Bay Area Reporter reported on that summer.
Moore, who received her Ph.D. in biology from UCLA, was unable to see it in person. While she didn't encounter much homophobia pursuing her education in marine science, Moore did experience racism and sexism.
"I am judged generally on being a Black person and Black woman first. A lot of people don't know I am gay or anything until they see me with my partner or I say it out loud," said Moore, speaking to the B.A.R. last fall via videoconference from Placencia, Belize, a village on the Caribbean Sea where she has lived since 2023 with her fiancée, Andria Villanueva, a marine scientist from the Central American country.
Those experiences had prompted Moore to create the hashtag #BlackinMarineScienceWeek in 2020 to celebrate via social media the contributions of people like herself in her scientific field. It was sparked by the racist harassment a gay Black birder, Christian Cooper, had faced from a white woman that May in New York City's Central Park, leading to the hashtag #BlackBirdersWeek, now a yearly event each spring.
Just as that social media campaign upended stereotypical comments that Black people don't bird watch, Moore aimed to have a similar conversation about erroneous perceptions that Black people don't work in the marine sciences. The overwhelmingly positive reaction to her social media campaign led Moore to launch the nonprofit Black in Marine Science, known as BIMS for short.
"Knowing environmental issues, climate change, and pollution if you will is centered around the ocean, and I know it impacts communities that look like me most, it calls me to want to address these questions and get more people who look like me into this field," said Moore, who in addition to being CEO of BIMS leads over $8 million in National Science Foundation research grants focused on nutrient pollution impacts and increasing racial equity.
At the time she spoke with the B.A.R., Moore was preparing for the second annual BIMS Week conference held in San Diego in early December, at which Cooper was a keynote speaker. The gathering brings together hundreds of scientists, community leaders, and marine enthusiasts for seven days of workshops, seminars, and networking.
"I, literally, in 2018, I wrote an op-ed entitled 'The only Black person in the room.' It is literally called that," said Moore, which was based on her experience as a student board member for the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and feeling isolated as she was often the lone Black marine scientist present.
BIMS now counts more than 600 members from 31 countries, with yearly dues costing $120 and providing free access to its programs such as scuba diving certification classes. Its annual budget of roughly $2 million helps employ a staff of seven people who all work remotely. (Moore earned $108,892 in 2023, according to BIMS' most recent tax filing)
Host of initiatives
It has launched a host of initiatives to connect Black marine science professionals from across the globe, from an academic journal it released last October to a web-based video series. A primary goal is to have more Black people consider entering the field for their professional careers.
Stanford University Ph.D. student Jillian Lyles is a BIMS member and was named one of its Tidal Wave fellows last fall. Lyles, 33, who is queer and nonbinary, expects to finish their five-year Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at the private college in 2028.
The Oakland resident is studying how human wellbeing and environmental wellbeing is interconnected, particularly among Black communities in the U.S. A key focus for Lyles is researching the ancestral connections of the African diaspora to the ocean.
While they were the lone Black person in their master's degree program at the University of Washington's School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, Lyles is one of half a dozen Black students in their cohort at Stanford. It has pierced their childhood concerns of finding no other Black marine scientists should they pursue that field of study.
"I have a very deep-rooted memory of my being on the beach and very saddened thinking I would always be the only one. This completely dissolves that for future generations," said Lyles. "There are people out there and around the world creating spaces for access and for us to thrive in the field."
Lyles grew up in Cleveland and would swim the shores of Lake Erie. From an early age they had an interest in the oceans and marine biology. At Cornell University, where they earned a bachelor's degree in the science of earth systems with a double minor in marine biology and natural resource management, they studied marine disease ecology.
"I have always loved the ocean," said Lyles, who is part of an outrigger canoe team with their partner. "Despite what anyone told me about Black people and our relationship to water, I never let what other people said about people who look like me stop me from doing things I like and I love."
Yet, in the cultural consciousness, many people think a marine biologist is a job for a white man, said Lyles, pointing to one of the most famous people in the profession, Jacques Cousteau.
"The representation isn't there for us like it is for other communities," said Lyles. "Then think about access, and access to open spaces is inadequate for Black and Brown people. In California, how many coastal Black and Brown communities are there?"
Organizations like BIMS are helping to break down stereotypes about Black people, said Lyles, such as the long-held trope that they don't swim. Lyles and their siblings were all lifeguards in their youth, with Lyles going on to get a scuba diving license.
"I love snorkeling and spear fishing. My dad would go sailing, and my mom loved the ocean," said Lyles. "We were just water people."
Via the group Diving With A Purpose, Lyles received training in identifying and documenting the indicators of a healthy coral reef system via its CARES program, short for Collective Approach to Restoring Our Ecosystems. Last summer, they were in Florida with it and hope to go to Panama and Honduras in the future.
"It is a citizen-scientist-based initiative where recreational divers are taught the importance of ecosystems and coral reefs," noted Lyles.
With the Black Lives Matter movement taking off when Lyles completed their master's program in 2016, they became "disenchanted" with academia and its inherent biases toward people of color. It led Lyles to quit science and spend the next seven years working various jobs, such as a preschool teacher at an outdoor school in Oakland, where Lyles and their partner had moved to in 2017.
They continued to bring people out to Stinson Beach to be near the ocean and to Pacifica to learn to surf in the waters off its beaches, as well as took part in the nonprofit Queer Surf. At the prompting of their partner, Lyles returned to pursuing a marine science career and applied to the program at Stanford. There they founded the group BOSS for Black Ocean Stanford Scholars.
"There are more of us now, but there is a lot of room for improvement," said Lyles.
They hope to see more Black LGBTQIA+ individuals choose a career in marine science as it provides a way for them "to connect deeply with themselves, their communities, and the planet," noted Lyles.
"Marine sciences offer more than just an academic or professional path — it's a space where our identities can intersect with the healing, vastness, and freedom that water represents," they noted. "Diving into this field allows us to reclaim narratives, explore ancestral connections, and challenge societal norms about who belongs in these spaces."
Moore also has long felt connected to the ocean. She earned a B.S. in biology from Winthrop University and a M.S. in biology with a concentration in environmental science from Hampton University.
"I feel free when in the ocean, especially scuba diving," said Moore. "Nobody is talking to me and saying, 'You are Black and don't belong.' There is a freedom there being one with the water. I feel an ancestral connection."
Through BIMS, Moore is able to talk to Black parents who may have concerns about their children becoming marine scientists. A large aspect of the profession is field work, which can have them aboard research vessels and ocean-going boats for weeks to months at a time, raising questions about how Black team members will be treated by their colleagues, noted Moore.
"I often get asked, 'Is it safe for us to go on board with these people for a long amount of time?' The answer now is, 'Yes.' Before, I couldn't say," said Moore. "We are removing these barriers that had been in place for a very long time."
At the end of the day, Moore wants other Black people who love the ocean and want to preserve it to be able to get paid for working at the beach like she does.
"This is not a bad field; it is just that people made me feel I didn't belong. Hopefully, nobody else has to experience that and nobody else will," said Moore.
To learn more about BIMS and become a member, visit its website at blackmarinescience.org.
Correction
Last month's column should have stated that Alexander Nurseries co-owners John Alexander and Jai Alltizer rent their Golden Gate Heights home and that Alexander grew up in Durham, North Carolina. The online version has been updated.
Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected]
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