Having formerly combined her love for technology, learning innovation, and well-crafted narratives at the Centre for Innovation, Tanja de Bie is now the Senior Policy Officer at LLInC. Here, she plays a key role in the Futures Thinking Team, while also serving as Chair of the Dienstraad, and acting as senior representative in the FNV Lokaal Overleg. In 2026, she received the FNV FemForce Award in recognition of her extensive work with the union.

More information about Tanja de Bie

After over a decade joyfully advocating for digital education at the Centre for Innovation, producing MOOCs, SPOCs, and blended learning experiments, Tanja de Bie is LLInC’s Senior Policy Officer and resident Lifelong Learning sage.  

Her 15+ years in online roleplaying communities has equipped her with a great level of skill in community management, diplomacy, narrative design, and troll identification from 200 paces. As one of the founders of LLInC’s Futures Thinking team, she uses her storytelling prowess to help explore questions of “what if” and “but should we?” when it comes to emerging educational realities.  

Tanja also serves as chair of LLInC’s Dienstraad and acts as senior representative in the FNV Lokaal Overleg. Beginning in September 2026, she will assume the LO chair - a responsibility she approaches with equal parts dedication, diplomacy, and caffeination. In 2026, she received the FNV FemForce Award. 

Tanja studied History at Leiden University in the early 1990s, providing her with the kind of insight which allows her to observe institutional patterns often long before others. Before returning to Leiden University in 2010 to support academic affairs at the Bestuursbureau, she built a career as a manager and Quality Assurance coordinator in the health care sector. Here, she discovered that improving systems, supporting people, and asking the uncomfortable-but-necessary questions are transferable skills across industries.  

In her spare time, Tanja indulges in Cultural Studies, roleplaying games, feminist theory, and sustainability activism - often simultaneously. She lives in Leiden with three adult children and two cats.