Wendy Purnell has promoted the ideas of a free society for two decades. In the Czech Republic, she developed curriculum to promote media literacy and critical thinking. She also wrote a weekly newspaper column celebrating the re-emergence of civil society post communism. Wendy also developed curriculum for the Cato Institute and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

For ten years, working with environmental NGO Paso Pacífico, she applied the ideas of new resource economics to community conservation and economic development efforts in Nicaragua. Programs she developed received recognition from National Geographic, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the InterAmerican Development Bank.

Wendy has worked directly with Hoover senior Terry Anderson to disseminate the ideas of new resource economics and new indigenous economics since 2013. She has worked with Canada’s Tulo Centre for Indigenous Economics to promote indigenous entrepreneurship and innovation since 2016.