CSUSB Alumna Dia S. Poole named President of CSU Alumni Council

Dia S. Poole ’90 was recently named president of the California State University Alumni Council, joining fellow CSUSB alumnus Lou Monville ’94 in CSU leadership positions. In her new role as president of the CSU Alumni Council representing more than 3 million CSU alumni worldwide, Poole will provide an Alumni Council report to the CSU Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, July 21, at the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. Poole, who earned a degree in business administration from CSUSB in 1990 with an information management concentration, has served for more than a decade as the CSUSB Alumni Association voting member on the CSU Alumni Council. She has been a long-time member of the CSUSB Alumni Association, and in 2008, was named CSUSB’s Alumni Advocate of the Year. Monville was elected by the CSU Alumni Council as the Alumni Trustee and is beginning his second year as chair of the CSU Board of Trustees, a 25-member governing body for the largest public four-year university system in the world, with 460,000 students across 23 campuses. As the representative voice of the CSU's 3 million alumni, the Alumni Council plays an active role in helping to shape CSU policy and participating in strategic decision-making. The council, comprised of alumni directors and representatives from all 23 campuses, utilizes its combined resources to represent and support the interests of the campus alumni associations, alumni and the CSU. Poole retired from the State of California and County of San Bernardino after serving nearly 34 years in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Prior to her retirement, she served as a legislative advocate in the Judicial Council of California’s Sacramento Office of Governmental Affairs. She was appointed by then-Gov. Gray Davis as deputy director, public affairs and external communications for the State of California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in 2000. Poole served as a senior policy consultant to former State Assembly speakers Antonio R. Villaraigosa and Robert Hertzberg and to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety at the state Capitol. She began her career in public service with the County of San Bernardino in 1981 in information systems. She also produced, hosted, and reported for several radio and television public affairs programs in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles. In 1994, Poole completed the prestigious California Legislature Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellowship Program in the state Capitol office of then-Assemblywoman (now Congresswoman) Barbara Lee, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus. Poole served as staff director for the caucus, receiving numerous accolades and recognition from members and leadership.