Wendy Lu Maxwell-Barton leads communications for PAX sapiens, in collaboration with the high-impact programs, projects, and initiatives within the organization.

Wendy Lu’s professional background and personal passion are centered on helping the helpers, those advancing solutions for the world’s most pernicious challenges. She has focused for the past decade on climate change solutions within regenerative, climate smart agriculture and the energy transition. Most recently, Wendy Lu led industry associations, including the International Biochar Initiative and the North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture, each with hundreds of members in over 70 countries. Prior to that, Wendy Lu founded and ran a novel food and farm startup company with products distributed online and in 12 US states.

A returned US Peace Corps Volunteer (Ukraine), Wendy Lu spent more than a decade in international development, working with UN agencies, including WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNODC, and IOM, as well as international development organizations such as Habitat for Humanity International. Focusing on multiple sectors, including water and sanitation, anti-human trafficking, rural infrastructure, and climate-smart agriculture, she worked with distributed, multi-country teams in over a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Wendy Lu has a Masters degree in international and intercultural communications from the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

Wendy Lu enjoys time in Colorado’s backcountry as often as possible with her husband and two adult-sized kids.