Christina Hsu
Christina Hsu is the PlayThrive Board President and a PlayThrive parent. She has a background in strategy and management consulting and currently works in the BioPharma industry. Christina is passionate about PlayThrive’s whole child educational approach that combines social emotional learning and S.T.E.A.M. education within a Mandarin immersion environment.
Kathi Black
Kathi Black serves as our PlayThrive secretary. Kathi worked in higher education for two decades but now uses her legal background in tech policy. A passionate supporter of education and organizations that support children and parents, Kathi volunteered as a mentor with at-risk girls in a San Francisco group home for two years, volunteered for a large parent support organization in San Francisco for one year, and was elected to the policy board for University of San Francisco’s faculty union for two years. She’s thrilled to support the high quality bilingual education mission of PlayThrive.
Thilo Hanemann
Thilo is serving as Treasurer of PlayThrive. He is a resident of Redwood City and a Mandarin Immersion parent. When he is not crunching numbers for Playthrive, Thilo co-manages a globally operating research partnership and works with various think tanks and policy-focused non-profits.
Rodney Leach
Rodney is a proud Playthrive and Mandarin Immersion parent and an architect with 18 years of experience in planning, design and construction. He is passionate about PlayThrive’s hands-on approach to learning and exploring the world around us. Rodney has a 2nd grader attends Orion and PlayThrive and his preschooler is at Odyssey next door. His family moved to Redwood City in 2020 specifically for the MI program.
Melody Yi
Melody joined PlayThrive in 2020 to support the Parent Partner and Whole Child Education role. She is currently a school psychologist supporting a top-rated progressive high school district, helping students with academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs. During the non-academic school year, Melody enjoys teaching, and has been a summer instructor at Stanford University teaching a course she designed titled “Topics in Psychology.” She co-leads a Mandarin Parenting Workshop twice a year. Bilingual in Mandarin and English, Melody feels honored to advocate for and support her passion in social-emotional learning, bi/multilingual education, and whole-child education.
Loren Cheung
Loren joins the PlayThrive board as a parent of a 3rd grader and a Mandarin Immersion pre-schooler. He is passionate about PlayThrive’s bilingual education, social-emotional learning, and whole-child approach to education. He is deeply devoted to social outreach and community building and hopes to expand the cultural enrichment opportunities at PlayThrive.
Matthew Dupree
Matthew brings his experience in communications to support the work of Playthrive. Matt is a copywriter with over 10 years experience crafting communications for companies large and small. As a PlayThrive parent and supporter of bilingual education, Matt hopes to extend the message of PlayThrive’s mission further across our community and beyond.
Please feel free to reach out to our board at board@playthrive.org.