It seems like Jasmin Graham is everywhere these days.

The 29-year-old marine biologist and founder of Sarasota's Minorities in Shark Sciences—which shines a light on work done by BIPOC scientists in the fields of shark science and conservation—has been making the rounds on national media. She directed and hosted last year's popular PBS YouTube series Sharks Unknown, in which she and her guests investigate little-known shark species and use cutting-edge technology to solve mysteries about shark biology and ecology. She also recently appeared on NPR’s Science Friday and CBS Mornings to promote her new memoir, Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, which was released by Pantheon last month. And, oh yeah, Graham and Sharks Don’t Sink were recently featured in The New York Times with the headline “Sharks Don’t Sink. And Neither Does Jasmin Graham.”

So, as she completes her book tour in Sarasota this Friday at Bookstore1, is Graham feeling buoyed by the spotlight on her life and research?

“It’s been really cool,” she says. “I started the tour in Myrtle Beach [where my family is from], and I’m ending in Sarasota, where I live, so it’s been a full-circle journey.”

Graham moved to Sarasota in 2020 and founded Minorities in Shark Sciences on Juneteenth of that year alongside fellow Black female scientists Amani Webber-Schultz, Carlee Jackson and Jaida Elcock. The organization’s mission is to fund opportunities for gender minorities of color who are interested in working in shark science. The organization also offers camps for kids and partners with other institutions on workshops, internships and research projects. Today, it boasts more than 500 members from 34 different countries and 30 territories. Graham also conducts her own research—her focuses are smalltooth sawfish and hammerhead sharks—and she’s currently working on a project about how sharks are impacted by red tide.

As a child, Graham says she loved science. A summer at a sleep-away science camp cemented her passion for marine biology, and she went on to attend College of Charleston and started a Ph.D. program at Florida State University before leaving it to move to Sarasota. (That's the “rogue scientist” part of Sharks Don’t Sink’s title.)

Graham says her family was always supportive of her goals and that writing Sharks Don’t Sink brought them closer together, even though a memoir was never in her original career plan. It was Chad Luibl, her current literary agent (but just “a random guy at the time,” she says with a laugh) who kickstarted the idea when he emailed her and asked if she’d ever thought about publishing a book about her life. As she and Luibl continued to talk, Graham realized that she had a lot to say—not just about sharks, but about social justice, too.

Graham’s father was an active member of the NAACP, her mother is an Air Force veteran and her grandfather was the first and only Black person in Myrtle Beach to own a gas station. As she was growing up, they educated her about Black history, Black leaders and civil rights. “My dad loves telling stories, so he was a big fan” of the book project and research, she says. “I learned some things, too. We did a joint interview with my dad and it was so interesting to hear his perspective on our family and the history of Myrtle Beach.”

Working with Makeba Rasin, a collaborative writer who helped research events Graham describes in the book, was also “really cool,” Graham says. “She was able to go and find these primary sources, like newspaper clippings about an event my dad described, and now my family has those.”

Graham also says that writing the book was therapeutic. “It’s interesting to take a bird’s-eye view of your life and think about the sum of its parts and how they led to this moment,” she explains. “It’s cathartic. It gives everything some purpose or meaning.” Working with Rasin—who, in addition to research, acted as sounding board and encouraged Graham to dive deep into the writing process—“was like doing an examination of my life and work in a way that I don’t usually think about.”

While Graham has achieved plenty of success in her career already, the road there was marked by potholes and detours. In Sharks Don’t Sink, she writes candidly about her longtime struggles with anxiety and being consistently underestimated because of the color of her skin. One example: a white teacher who asked, “Are you lost?” on Graham’s first day at her magnet school, implying that because she was Black, she shouldn’t be there. She didn't meet another Black marine biologist until she was 22 years old, and in graduate school, an older male researcher essentially stole her work without consequence, leading Graham to leave the program. "I wonder if this would be happening to me if I was a white male," she writes.

Still, despite—or because of—those experiences, Graham says she hopes that future scientists of color realize that bringing every part of who they are to their chosen career is an asset, not a hindrance. “Science is supposed to be objective, and people will say to leave the other things about you at the door,” she says. “I don’t agree with that. Our stories, our ancestors, what we care about, our culture—all of those things make us who we are. Science is done by people, and people are biased, so we may as well bring all of our perceptions and realities and experiences into what we’re doing.” If people can do that, she says, it can help change the status quo.

"Do science!" she says. "And if someone tells you that you can’t, don’t listen to them.”

Jasmin Graham will be hosting a talk and signing copies of Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist at Bookstore1Sarasota from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30. For more information, click here.