Marvelous Marni, lemur lover

Animal enthusiast, biological anthropologist, and social justice activist Marni LaFleur Ph.D. has an extraordinary quality list

Syndey Frigerio/Contributor

From overcoming challenges during her unique upbringing to creating her own non-profit organization based on her passion, Marni LaFleur has dedicated much of her life to making a positive impact on society. She has lived in various countries, built her education from the ground up, become a university professor, and unwaveringly upheld her intention to make the world a better place.

“I value kindness over anything,” she said. “I think if we were all a little bit kinder, it would truly go a long way.”

 LaFleur is a gem within the USD community. She encourages and celebrates empathy, diversity, education, and loves to share her passion for science and animals. A noteworthy endeavor of LaFleur’s is her (pre-coronavirus) annual research in Madagascar. She hopes to someday bring students along with her on these excursions to study lemurs. Not only does LaFleur make USD a brighter place, but she also has a magnificent story to tell behind her many achievements.

LaFleur traces her youth back to Victoria, Canada. She was an only child raised by her fundamentalist Jehovah’s Witness parents who never instilled values of education within her, which made her schooling experience bleak. At the end of middle school, LaFleur entered into difficult times with her parents, as she simply stopped listening to them. This resulted in them pulling LaFleur out of school in the eighth grade and leaving her home by herself for a year straight.

She recalled the extremely desolate year rich with isolation, loneliness, boredom, and lots of rain that reflected her inner condition. LaFleur shared that on top of the emotional strain of being cut off socially and educationally, she also endured an eating disorder that she ties back to the lack of control over her life.

Although LaFleur faced rather unique circumstances in her youth, she made the decision to reclaim ownership of her life around the time of her 18th birthday. LaFleur began to pave the pathway that would get her education back on track by taking placement tests, working various jobs to provide for herself, and enrolling in community college.

Her persistence landed her at the University of Victoria where she pursued a degree in biology and fell in love with learning about primates. LaFleur discovered an inherent, unwavering love for animals, and the opportunity to learn about them in an educational setting was the light that illuminated her career path. She finished her master’s degree in Canada before moving to the states to pursue her education even further.

After being accepted to University of Colorado, Boulder, LaFleur began her new life in the United States in pursuit of her Ph.D. in anthropology. Moving to a new country inevitably brought forth cultural shifts and new observations for LaFleur, one being her awareness of the perception of race. In the midst of the 2008 elections, LaFleur recalls the confusion that struck her after viewing statistics for the Black, White, and Latino votes, asking herself, “Isn’t a vote just a vote?”

In Canada there is freedom of information, she shared, which means that your information belongs solely to you. There is no census nor open disclosure of racial identity, so LaFleur was quite shocked by this political focus on disparities within groups of people. It was this realization on top of questioning her complex religious upbringing that furthered LaFleur’s passion for creating a more just society.

Facing the difficult task of reconciling what she had been taught and what she felt, LaFleur chose to trust her emotions and acknowledge the prejudices within the religious teachings she had grown up amongst. LaFleur shared how deeply she dislikes unfairness, especially when based on something that is a part of who an individual is. This principle has assuredly fueled her activism.

“In the small ways that I can contribute to initiatives on campus and in society, I absolutely will, because I truly want the world to be more fair,” she said.

Another key quality that makes LaFleur who she is is her love for all animals, especially lemurs. In fact, she adores them so much that she built her own nonprofit organization entitled Lemur Love. Her passion for these lively little creatures evolved as she spent time in Madagascar observing and analyzing their behaviors. Something unique about the ring-tailed lemur that LaFleur is drawn to is their matriarchal social structure, which is rather uncommon in the animal world.

LaFleur’s Madagascar experience consisted of lengthy travel days, a sinkhole for bathing, temperatures up to 130 degrees, no electricity, and various neighborhoods of bugs and critters. Still, she feels honored to have spent time in her favorite animal’s home in its rawest state.

“I love being out in the forest. It is such a privilege to be completely accepted by these animal groups,” she said. “At this point, they know who I am, they know when I come back. I’m out in the middle of nothing and get to hang out with these awesome creatures.”

It was about a decade ago that LaFleur recalls a particular visit in Madagascar where she noticed that aspects of the field were missing. She saw gaps in their habitat, recognizing clearly that the lemurs’ favorite spots to relax, including their favorite naptime trees, had disappeared.

“I was the only one working with these animals and if I didn’t do something, they would disappear and nobody would even notice,” she said. LaFleur felt responsible and inclined to protect them, which led to the birth of her organization.

LaFleur started Lemur Love in 2012 with the mission to “ensure lemurs thrive in their forest homes through the power of women, science, and an extended global ‘troop.’”

Through this new endeavor LaFleur has been able to work with communities in southwest Madagascar near the Tsminanampesote National Park, build relationships with these communities, and promote conservation of these areas and the life that they behold. Lemur Love has combated illegal lemur pet ownership, advocated for local Madagascar inclusion in the science realm, and helped further research and preservation of lemurs.

During the past few months in the midst of the pandemic, Lemur Love has been able to focus their efforts on humanitarian aid. In these times of need, they have made payments and food deliveries to poor communities across Madagascar, which LaFleur feels proud to have coordinated. During her time within these communities, LaFleur makes a point to figure out what they want, not what she and her fellow volunteers want for them.

LaFleur began teaching at the University of San Diego just three years ago, previously teaching at the University of California, San Diego. She loves USD because of how she is appreciated not only intellectually, but as a person. She teaches classes on biological anthropology, primate behavior, ecology, and conservation, and also seeks to instill inspiration within her students.

“I like to stress to students that they are in control of their own life,” she said. “We get lost in depression and the grading system and all of these pressures, but if you really hate what you are doing, you don’t have to do it. It feels like nobody will understand, but they will. We can’t forget that we are in charge of what we do.”

Outside of school and lemurs, LaFleur loves her husband, her pets, going to the beach, and making homemade salsa straight from her garden. Marni LaFleur, in all her essence, is a lover — lover of animals, lover of people, and lover of making the world a better place.