Christina Sass

Christina Sass is the Co-founder and President of Andela. She is a tenacious advocate and supporter of women worldwide, and she has held Andela to an incredibly high standard when it comes to recruiting female software engineers. While tech companies in the U.S. with 100 or more software engineers struggle to employ 10 percen oft women in technical positions, Andela currently reports early 30 percent female engineers in its program. In an effort to further combat this challenge, Christina has launched multiple female-only recruitment cycles and bootcamps in both Lagos and Nairobi, as well as spearheaded the “She Loves Code” initiative, through which women in the program mentor young women in their communities.

Prior to Andela, Christina built education and employment programs in China, Gaza and the West Bank, Kenya, and in her home state of Georgia. Christina worked closely with President Clinton and team when she served as Director of the Program Department of the Clinton Global Initiative and then as advisor to the President and CEO of The Mastercard Foundation, a $9B global foundation working to advance youth learning and financial inclusion for African youth. Christina serves on the Advisory Council of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and on the board of the non-profit Global Give Back Circle. Christina’s work has been mentioned by Forbes, CNN, The New Yorker, NBC, and WIRED. She was named as a 2014 New York Business Journal “Women of Influence”, a 2015 Business Insider “23 most innovative and inspiring women in New York City Tech.”Christina has a BA in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs) and a MA in International Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School from Tufts University.