Sao-Kpato Hannah Isata Max-Kyne is the Commissioner of the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA). Prior to her current appointment, she served as Deputy Commissioner of NaCSA. She had served as Assistant Director- General for Policy and Technical Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation providing technical oversight of the Technical and Economic Cooperation Directorate and the Research, Planning and Knowledge Management Directorate. She also worked as Project Coordinator, Peace Building Fund Secretariat, in the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development providing technical and secretariat support to the Technical Review Committee. Sao-Kpato Max-Kyne was part of the team that initiated the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Process in Sierra Leone, starting with the Interim PRS and the PRSP 1. She was the Social Action and Poverty Alleviation Expert with the AfDB funded Social Action and Poverty Alleviation (SAPA) Programme in the National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (NCRRR); and Programme Manager Relief and Resettlement, leading the development of the post-war resettlement strategy for Sierra Leone.

Sao-Kpato is a highly accomplished academician with a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Development in African Studies and Research from Howard University, Washinton DC, USA; MBA from University of Maryland University College, USA; MSc in Sociology and Anthropology with specialty in Social Change and Development from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria; and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and History from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. She has spent close to thirty years in university teaching and research collectively at Fourah Bay College and the Institute of Public Administration and Management in the University of Sierra Leone; Njala University, Sierra Leone; University of Liberia; and Howard University in the United States.