As a member of the executive leadership team at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. James L. Moore III is the Assistant Director for the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU). With an annual budget of over $1 Billion and personnel oversight for nearly 200 employees, he serves as the senior leader for EDU, which supports science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects focusing on K-12 education, undergraduate and graduate education, workforce and human resource development, and learning in formal and informal settings. Prior to his NSF appointment, Dr. Moore served, for over five years, as the university’s vice provost for diversity and inclusion, chief diversity officer, and leader of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (one of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive office of its kind) at The Ohio State University. From 2015 to 2017, he served as a program director for Broadening Participation in Engineering in the Directorate for Engineering at NSF, and, during that time, he was one of the program directors who helped launch the highly acclaimed, cross-directorate, NSF INCLUDES, a $100 million plus national broadening participation in STEM initiative. From 2011 to 2015, he was an associate provost for diversity and inclusion at The Ohio State University, where he managed numerous nationally-acclaimed programs and units.

Dr. Moore is nationally-recognized for his work on African American males, and he has served on The Ohio State University’s faculty, since 2002. He is the first executive director for the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male and is the inaugural EHE Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at The Ohio State University. His research agenda focuses on school counseling, gifted education, urban education, higher education, multicultural education/counseling, and STEM education, and Dr. Moore is often quoted, featured, and mentioned in popular publications, such as the New York Magazine, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Columbus Dispatch, Spartanburg Herald, Cincinnati Enquirer, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Since 2018, he has been cited annually by Education Week as one of the 200 most influential scholars and researchers in the United States. 

Dr. Moore has co-edited and co-authored seven books: (a) African American Students in Urban Schools: Critical Issues and Solutions for Achievement; (b) African American Male Students in PreK-12 Schools: Informing Research, Policy, and Practice; (c) Black Males and Intercollegiate Athletics: An exploration of Problems and Solutions; (d) Advancing Educational Outcomes in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; (e) Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices and Directions for the Future; (f) Black Boys are Lit: Engaging PreK-3 Gifted and Talented Black Boys Using Multicultural Literature and Ford's Bloom-Banks Matrix; and (g) African American Young Girls and Women in PreK12 Schools and Beyond: Informing Research, Policy, and Practice. Further, he has published over 160 publications; obtained over $40 million in grants, contracts, and gifts; and given over 200 scholarly presentations and lectures throughout the United States and other parts of the world (e.g., Dominican Republic, Brazil, Bermuda, Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, England, Spain, China, India, Indonesia, Ireland, and France).