Poly Alumni Association Board Welcomes New Members for 2024-2025!
We are pleased to introduce our new board members Melissa Culross ’88, Tshema Nash ’06, and Dave Raichlen ’94.
Melissa Culross ’88 is an audio storyteller and communicator who has been creating compelling and engaging content for more than three decades.
She began her career in radio as a disc jockey, news reader and traffic reporter at a variety of stations in New England. Melissa continued working in radio when she moved to San Francisco, first as a DJ, then as a reporter and anchor for legacy all-news station KCBS. During her tenure at KCBS, she won more than a dozen broadcast journalism awards for her reporting and as part of the news team.
In early 2023, Melissa shifted from radio to public service. She is now a Public Relations Officer for the city of San Francisco’s transportation agency. Her work includes strategic communications planning, writing agency news stories, and producing and hosting the podcast, Taken with Transportation.
Outside of work, Melissa sings (a habit she began at Poly) and serves on the San Francisco-Northern California Board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature from Brown University.
Tshema Nash ’06 is the Access to Care Program Officer with Cedars-Sinai’s Community Benefit Giving Office, driven by her focus on building more equitable communities so all have an opportunity to thrive. In her role, Tshema mobilizes resources to support community health clinics, behavioral health organizations, and other LA County safety net nonprofits.
Prior to this role, Tshema held positions with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), The Commonwealth Fund, and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Throughout her career, Tshema spent three years living and working in Ecuador, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Lesotho in various educational and public health capacities.
Tshema holds a doctorate (DrPH) from Boston University School of Public Health, an MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and a BS from Emory University.
David Raichlen ’04 is an Anthropologist and Biologist interested in the evolutionary links between physical activity and brain aging. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he joined the faculty in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ and moved to USC in 2019 as a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. His research explores the links between human evolution, physical activity, and health across the lifespan with a specific focus on understanding how and why exercise can help delay or prevent the onset of dementia. He has mentored undergraduate and graduate students throughout his career and is passionate about education and giving students opportunities to gain hands-on experience in research.
He currently serves on the board of the Hadza fund, a charity focused on improving access to health services in a population of hunter-gatherers living in northern Tanzania. After spending several years working with this group in the context of research projects, he and his colleagues started this charity to help give back to their community.
Dave holds a B.S. from Duke University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin.
Meet your Alumni Board for 2024-2025!
Jethro Rothe-Kushel ’99; P’34 | President
Anton Anderson ’85; P’34
Pradip Chandrasoma ’05
Melissa Culross ’88
Brooke Cutler ’98
Marisa Echeverria '96; P’30, ’32
Richard Kim ’98; P’34,’36
Elise Kuo ’07
Caitlin Latta ’07
Mackenzie Lee ’12
Joseph Masters ’18
Tshema Nash ’06
Dave Raichlen ’94
Jennifer Rho ’00
Bianca Torres-Murray ’20
Emily Williams ’86
Student Representatives: Annabelle C. ’25, Zara K. ’26
Please contact the Alumni Office with any questions about the Alumni Association activities or the Alumni Board!
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