Wendy Russell is a transdisciplinary academic and currently the Principal Consultant at Double Arrow Consulting, a Canberra-based consultancy specialising in deliberative engagement, a research fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at The Australian National University.

She began her professional life studying science, majoring in biochemistry and completed a PhD in photosynthesis research at the University of Queensland.

Wendy then took a position as lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong (UoW), where she taught biology. During her 10 years at UoW, she shifted her research from photosynthesis to social aspects of biotechnology, transdisciplinary inquiry, and technology assessment (the latter as Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery project with Prof Frank Vanclay).

After leaving UoW, Wendy worked in the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education for several years, managing the award-winning Science & Technology Engagement Pathways program. It was during this time she developed an interest and skills in the practices of facilitation, dialogue and deliberation.

Wendy went freelance in 2014, forming Double Arrow Consulting, a Canberra business specialising in two-way engagement. She is a visiting fellow and sessional academic at the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at The Australian National University and convenes the course Science Dialogue Theory and Practice. She is also an associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra.