Big Javi and Dr. D Walker welcome Thais Bass-Moore to Black with Blue Passports to explore the influence that studying abroad has on the Black women that Thais works with through FLI, the Fearless Leadership Institute at UT-Austin. Thais also reflects on her own journey with international travel and how it has influenced her children, who have been to every continent besides Antartica!
Thaïs Bass-Moore, a native of Los Angeles, CA, received her B.A. from UCLA in African American Studies & English. Upon graduation, she taught elementary school in Los Angeles before getting married and relocating to Louisiana. Thaïs, an actress at heart, studied fine arts and playwriting at several institutions nationwide and served as founder and director of The Black Theatre Company of Baton Rouge where she produced many of her own works. After being a stay-at-home mother for 10 years, she began working at the University of Texas at Austin as a program coordinator. Seeing the need for a holistic development initiative for Black women on campus she partnered with colleague, Dr. Tiffany T. Lewis and created the Fearless Leadership Institute in 2013. In 2018, she earned an M.A. from The University of Texas at Austin in Human Dimensions of Organizations. She currently serves as director of the Fearless Leadership Institute. Thaïs is the author of A Syllabus for Black Women: 110 Life Lessons for Sistahs in College. She is married to Leonard Moore and together they have three amazing children.