Lu Gao

Lu Gao is a Senior Program Officer with WWF's Wildlife Conservation team, where she collaborates with governments, technology companies, engineers, researchers, and law enforcement agencies to reduce opportunities for wildlife traffickers to exploit transportation and trade systems. Her work focuses on helping partners adopt emerging technologies that strengthen the detection of trafficked wildlife at ports and borders and supporting their successful integration into everyday operations.

She is currently helping advance AI based wildlife detection systems for airport security screening and new approaches that enable wildlife detection dog units to screen seaports more efficiently. She has also worked closely with air transport and technology companies through the ROUTES Partnership and the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online to help strengthen the role of the private sector in preventing the movement of illegal wildlife products through transportation networks and online platforms. Her work spans Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and she is passionate about bringing together partners from across sectors to solve complex conservation challenges.

Education

• M.A. – Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology at Columbia University;
• B.A. – Neuroscience & B.S. – Business Administration at University of Southern California

Areas of Expertise

• Conservation technology
• Wildlife trafficking prevention
• Cross sector partnerships
• Law enforcement capacity building
• Private sector engagement