Mr. Moore: From Pharmaceuticals to Pritzker

By ASTON CHAN ‘22

Sitting in the corner of his classroom, Pritzker 203, Mr. Moore says intently “Ultimately, I want to eat, breathe, and teach science. To this day, people ask me whether I miss the pharmaceutical industry. You bet I do. The other stuff that came with it, the stress and the management issue wasn’t for me. Some people are great at it, but it wasn’t for me,” Mr. Moore says intensely in the corner of his classroom at Pritzker Room 203. Amidst the cluster of chemistry assignments stacked on his table, his simplistic feeling of devotion emanates from every direction, the process of his journey highlighted by pictures on his desk of both his personal life and time in the pharmaceutical industry

Mr. Moore earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in organic chemistry at Oklahoma State University and furthered his education at the University of Kansas, where he completed his Ph.D. He spent most of his career working on developing organic molecules for pharmaceutical companies. Climbing up the corporate ladder, as Moore took on management positions, he struggled with an identity crisis: he felt he should enjoy the benefits and higher pay that come with working above people rather than with them, but he still preferred working in the lab over the office.

When asked about his decisions to go into pharmaceuticals and then teaching, Mr. Moore reflects candidly on his beginnings as a secondary education major, the pressure and complications resulting from success in the pharmaceutical industry, and his decision to start teaching at Milton Academy.

He explains, “To put into context, I was going to teach science with a secondary education major and coach baseball at Oklahoma State University back in 1995. My chemistry professor called me into his office and said: ‘Joel, you’re doing really well, you ever thought about doing a double major?’ I didn’t, but having a hard time saying no, I said sure. I became a chemistry major taking organic chemistry, and I loved it. I wanted more of it, so I did research at an undergraduate chemistry lab. My entire focus was chemistry, putting me into the pharmaceutical arena after my post-doctorate in 2006. I thought it was a lot of fun; it was very stressful, but getting biological data for compounds that you made was awesome.”

His enthusiasm for science led to his gradual success in the industry: “My career was going very well, molecules that I was making, or a part of making, were going into human clinical trials, the goal for a medicinal chemist like me. But one of the problems when things go well and you get promoted, for instance, is that you start to be in charge of people. The more people you are in charge of, the less focus you have on science. I am a hardcore scientist. The more my career was developing, the less science I felt like I was actually doing. I was unhappy and I didn’t know why. In retrospect, I can see it; I think a lot of it was because I was dealing with egos more than I was dealing with science, and that was a problem with me.”

The same concentrated commitment to chemistry, he asserts, was also why he switched to teaching. “I switched to a new company, thinking that it would be all better. It didn’t [improve]. Along with personal health issues, I was led to a fork in the road. I knew that I loved chemistry, I loved science, and I didn’t want to be a manager. Explaining to my colleague one day about how a molecule was metabolized in the body, she said, ‘Joel, you missed your calling. You should be a teacher.’ ”

Mr. Moore explains that his path to Milton was unexpected: “As a PhD, in my egocentric head, I started looking only at colleges. Something crossed my job search- Milton Academy. I got a call from the department head, had a phone conversation to teach a class two days later. The more I looked into it, the more excited I got. When I showed up to campus, I said to myself: ‘Screw college, this is nicer than most colleges!’ All my students were inquisitive, nice and polite, and I loved the atmosphere and vibes. I talked to my wife, and one of the things we had to consider was the financial implications. A teacher does not make as much as a PhD pharmaceutical scientist. The financial implications of teaching with a family of five was a big decision, but I cannot even tell you how grateful I am for making that decision.”