Melis Tusiray (she/her) is President at Cascade Strategies, a women-owned strategic advisory. She is a seasoned business strategy and operations director with experience in the private, nonprofit, government, and academic sectors. She has a strong track record of coordinating talented teams in organizations such as Epic Media, Vox Media, the American Friends of Bucerius/ZEIT-Stiftung, and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

She has successfully built out operations infrastructure at multiple organizations, and led programs on critical issues like renewable energy, sustainability, and entrepreneurship in the United States, Germany, and East Africa. While with Epic and Vox Media, she was involved with the entire process of developing, producing, distributing and promoting editorial articles, podcasts, and film and tv projects. From public-facing materials to internal stakeholder engagement, Melis is experienced in creating a communications strategy to establish support for new endeavors.

She holds a BA from the University of California Los Angeles, and an MA from Georgetown University