Luke Wenz joined the USGLC team in 2018 and currently serves as the Deputy National Outreach Director, Western Region. In addition to his work with USGLC, Luke serves as the Vice President of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, sits on the Advisory Boards of Global Ties Arizona and WorldPix, Inc., and is the President of Big Stick Consulting, LLC – an Arizona-based strategic consulting firm focusing on a broad range of public relations and government affairs consulting. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and was previously a fellow at the Shafik Gabr Foundation’s “East-West: The Art of Dialogue” initiative and the African Middle Eastern Leadership Project.
Earlier in his career, Luke served spent time on Capitol Hill and later as Deputy District Director and Campaign Manager for U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska. He also spent time living and working in Amman, Jordan and with the Kayany Foundation in Lebanon, working in refugee camps to create the conditions in which young people who were forced to flee their homes due to violence and instability were given a quality education. A native Phoenician, Luke attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, studying political science and religious philosophy. Luke is based in Phoenix as he executes USGLC’s western outreach.
As the United States continues to fight COVID-19 at home and around the world, health care workers are at the front lines of the response. I recently spoke with Dr. Paul Lynch, an anesthesiologist— and a member of USGLC’s Arizona Advisory Committee—who traveled to New York City to offer his services at epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. While working at the hospital, he contracted COVID-19.
The catastrophic domestic and global effects of coronavirus begs the question: why was the world so unprepared for this virus? In search of some answers, I recently spoke with Ambassador Roger Meece, former U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2004 – 2007) and Malawi (2000 – 2003) and a member of the USGLC’s Washington State Advisory Committee.