Tiangay Samandia Massaquoi is a Data and AI governance practitioner, software engineer, policy expert, and emerging technology strategist working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, public sector data systems, and digital governance in West Africa.
She currently serves as a Data Expert under a Global Partnership for Education Programme, embedded within the Planning and Policy Directorate of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education — where she works directly on data systems, policy design, and evidence-based planning at the heart of government.
As a software engineer, Tiangay is passionate about building applications that solve real, everyday problems for Sierra Leoneans — grounded in the belief that technology should be felt in people’s lives, not just debated in policy rooms. She is a passionate advocate for harnessing artificial intelligence to transform Sierra Leone and the broader West African region from reactive societies into predictive ones — using data and intelligent systems to anticipate challenges, allocate resources smarter, and get ahead of crises before they arrive.

Tiangay’s academic formation is both unusually broad and deliberately interconnected. She holds a Master’s in Global Public Policy with Distinction from SOAS University of London, where her research interrogated how donor-driven implementation shapes policy practice in Sierra Leone’s education sector. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence at the University of York — extending her expertise to the technical frontier of AI. She further holds a Postgraduate qualification in Education from University College London, and a Postgraduate qualification in Poverty and Development from the University of Sussex — giving her a rigorous grounding in the human development conditions that technology must ultimately serve.

Her work spans AI readiness, data governance frameworks, and the institutional conditions that determine whether technology serves public good or bypasses it. She is a vocal advocate for rethinking AI priorities in African public institutions — arguing that governance infrastructure must be built alongside, not after, AI deployment.
Tiangay is based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and brings to every platform the rare combination of technical knowledge, policy fluency, hands-on engineering experience, and the lived perspective of a practitioner working inside a West African government institution.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​