Director of Fearless Leadership Institute
(FLI)
Thaïs Bass-Moore was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Pasadena, CA. She earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her master’s from the University of Texas at Austin in Human Dimensions of Organizations. What Thaïs cherishes most is her family including her cousins, aunts & uncles. Her favorite childhood memories include going camping, fishing, and boating.
After graduating from UCLA where she studied African American Studies & English, she taught 2nd grade in Compton, CA while studying acting by night at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Shortly thereafter, she married and relocated to Baton Rouge, LA. There she studied playwriting at LSU and with the support of her husband opened The Black Theatre Company of Baton Rouge where she produced, directed, and acted in many of her own works. During this time, she was also a stay-at-home mother of her three joys, Jaaucklyn, Lauryn, and Leonard.
Upon moving to Austin, she studied acting at UT and eventually started working at UT as a program coordinator for a high school outreach program, meanwhile serving as a mentor to many of the students at UT. That one-on-one mentoring sparked an interest in Thaïs to create a holistic development program for Black undergraduate women at UT. Along with her colleague, Dr. Tiffany T. Lewis, she started the internationally known holistic development program called the Fearless Leadership Institute (FLI). FLI serves over 300 Black and Brown women at UT each year.
In 2019, Thaïs published A Syllabus for Black Women: 110 Life Lessons for Sistahs in College. She is the co-founder of the FLI Girls Podcast, which is an extension of FLI designed to empower Black women nationally. In the spring of 2021, she launched Wifey Boot Camp, a social media network to support women in marriage. She enjoys spending time with family & friends, laughing, performing/acting, playing basketball, playing volleyball and boating.
