Alissa Poh earned her B.Sc. (Hons) degree in biochemistry from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and an M.S. in cancer pharmacology from Dartmouth Medical School, New Hampshire. She then joined the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz (class of 2008), where she had the opportunity to write about peregrine falcons and NASA's gamma-ray observatory, among other topics. Her favorite class assignments included talking with a Vatican astronomer about religion and science, and exploring the scientific basis for perfect pitch. 

After completing UCSC's program with a summer internship at Boston Children's Hospital, Alissa spent some time covering the pharmaceutical industry: She wrote original stories for and produced PharmaWeek, an e-newsletter of Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) in Needham, Massachusetts, and regularly contributed to CHI's flagship publication, Bio-IT World. She also freelanced for Dartmouth Medicine magazine. Living in the Midwest from 2011 to 2017, she covered scientific research at the University of Kansas (KU) Medical Center and created KU Cancer Center's first print magazine. As well, she freelanced for the Stowers Institute for Medical Research across the state line in Kansas City, Missouri.

Now back East in Pennington, New Jersey, Alissa regularly writes news stories for Cancer Discovery, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Association for Cancer Research.