With a master’s degree in philosophy, Lassana Cissé has worked in cultural heritage in Mali since 1979.

In 1994, he founded the Bandiagara Cultural Mission, and managed it until 2013. He then occupied the positions of National Director of Cultural Heritage and National Coordinator of the project “Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Mali with a View to Its Urgent Safeguarding” from 2013 to 2016. He is also a member of the UNESCO network of African experts for the 1972, 2003 and 2005 Conventions. He took part in the UNESCO expert workshop on supporting policy development regarding intangible cultural heritage in Constantine, Algeria, September–October 2015. As an expert facilitator, he reviewed Niger’s requests for international emergency assistance to safeguard intangible cultural heritage against a crisis backdrop (June–July 2017). He worked on the expert mission for the PAST project in Haiti as a Senior Consultant for UNESCO (January–March 2018). He is also the Vice President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS-MALI, and has worked as an independent expert in heritage since January 2017.