Sean Lundy, a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, attended Iowa State University where he graduated in 2014 with a B.S. in Global Resource Systems and a B.S. in Nutrition. While at school, he launched several organizations, including the Global Health and AIDS Coalition, the Current Events Forum, and a student-run political advocacy committee. With an academic focus on International Development and Food Security, Sean completed several multi-disciplinary internships, first with Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns (VEDCO), focused on rural market access in the Kamuli District of Uganda, and then with the Panamanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where he assessed the impact of improved nutrition programs in several pastoral communities. Finally, he spent the summer of 2013 at the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry where he helped write Public Law 480, the Food for Peace Act. 

Sean received his MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2022. His professional experience working both in the field and in Washington, D.C. compelled him to look at how the private sector could lead a market-centered approach to addressing the same socio-economic issues he saw in underdeveloped communities at home and abroad. He studied impact investing and was selected as a 2020 Sands Social Venture Fellow. 

Professional Experience

After his undergraduate education, Sean joined the Peace Corps, where he served 3 years in Togo, West Africa. His first two years were spent in a rural village outside of Tchamba as a Community Health Specialist operating out of a clinic. Key activities included the fundraising and construction of clinic latrines, with running water handwashing stations, hosting a weekly radio show that discussed public health issues and reached 24,000 listeners, weekly neonatal nutrition meetings with pregnant mothers, and leading the Peace Corps Togo Health Project Advisory Board, which developed Peace Corps Togo’s 5-year strategic plan. He then extended his service for a third year as a Monitoring and Evaluation Peace Corps Volunteer Leader, leading the establishment of a data analytics department within the organization. Sean directed the Monitoring and Evaluation Task Force in developing, administering, and analyzing a country-wide impact questionnaire on food security, health, and education. More than 4,000 households were surveyed, and the results were presented to the Togolese Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, and Education, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Lomé.

After the Peace Corps, Sean returned to Washington, D.C. to work as Special Assistant to the President of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF). While at WCF, Sean oversaw a global operation focused on building a sustainable cocoa supply chain – from farmers in West Africa to board rooms in Brussels. It was here that Sean saw how private sector investments could be massed to fundamentally change the economic livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In 2019, Sean moved back to Minnesota to enlist in the Army National Guard and enroll at the Carlson School of Management. He commissioned as an Armored Officer in the United States Army in 2021 and was placed as a platoon leader with the 1/94 Cavalry Scout Squadron, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. 

Sean now works as the Special Projects & Initiatives Manager for the Department of Community Development with the City of Bloomington. His portfolio includes the Hatch Bloomington Business Pitch Competition, which awards $100,000 to aspiring entrepreneurs, and the Bloomington Economic Partnership, which leverages key business investments to realize several large-scale economic initiatives and is projected to bring in over $1.5 billion to the local marketplace. He also led a city-wide initiative to fund $54 million in sewer redevelopment and oversaw a $1 million office remodel.