His PhD is in ethnomethodology from the University of California San Diego. Pierce has 30+ years’ experience in directing nonprofit, university and corporate organizations including as national executive director of the Surfrider Foundation.
His 1987 academic article “Waves of Semiosis: Surfing’s Iconic Progression” published in the American Journal of Semiotics is considered by cultural scholars to be a foundational text in the new sociology of sport and culture. It analyzes surfing culture as a “semiotic” (meaning making) system with unique cultural symbols, signs and meanings in its language, experience, history, film, music, publications, art, fashion and commercial culture. It is one of the first studies of surfing culture to be published in an international academic journal. His book, The Ethnomethodological Movement: Sociosemiotic Interpretations was published in the Approaches to Semiotics Series by Mouton de Gruyter.
Pierce’s roles have included being the national executive director of the Surfrider Foundation, Senior VP of Business Development at DUB Publishing, Events & Media, VP of Business Development and Partnerships at Surfdog Records and Entertainment, a founding Board of Director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, a Board of Director for the University of California San Diego’s Africa and African American Studies Research Center, and a staff and Board member for the Native American nonprofit Unci Intertribal. He has taught university students at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, the University of Paris, Design Institute of San Diego, and at California State University San Marcos.
Pierce worked in the action sports industry at Breakout Surf Magazine, Transworld Skateboarding and Snowboarding Magazines, Burton Snowboards, and Best Buy’s Redline Entertainment action sports film division. He now consults for university, nonprofit and corporate sectors and has worked with many nonprofit, multicultural, and corporate companies including Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s, DUB Magazine and the DUB national Music and Car Show Tour, Amazon, Microsoft, MTV, Xbox, Pepsi, GM, Harley Davidson, Toyota, Walmart, Target, other entertainment and music media companies, and international governmental agencies.
Pierce lives in San Marcos, California, with his artist wife Lindsey and their two dogs, and surfs, free dives and fly fishes regularly.