Jerry Nagel, PhD, BA and MA (in Economics) – Strategist, Consultant and Host – Meadowlark Institute, Minnesota, USA

Jerry is President of the Meadowlark Institute, a non-profit organization that trains and supports leaders through customized leadership programs for individuals, businesses and organizations. This work is grounded in the patterns and practices of the Art of Participatory Leadership and the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations, a self organized global network where he is internationally recognized as a meaningful contributor and steward. Meadowlark Institute also provides intergenerational and intercultural transformational leadership learning experiences focused on developing our collective capacities to work together.

Jerry is well known for his knowledge and expertise on Worldview Intelligence. The design and delivery of Worldview Intelligence training programs has emerged from practical hands-on experience with this topic and is supported by his research for his PhD dissertation on Worldview, Social Constructionist Theory and the Art of Hosting. He regularly gives presentations and seminars on transformational and participatory leadership as well as worldview awareness. He also designs and co-designs custom leadership programs for organizations.

Over his career, Jerry has served in leadership positions in several organizations, including the Association for Human Development, North Dakota Rural Development Corporation, Crookston Enterprise Development Center, Northwest Regional Development Commission, Red River Trade Council and Northern Great Plains Rural Development Commission. He also served as an economic development advisor to former North Dakota Governor Art Link.

Jerry Nagel is a fourth generation North Dakotan. He spent his winters attending school in Bismarck, North Dakota and summers on his grandparent’s farm on the edge of Millarton, ND (pop. 15). Jerry has many fond memories of his time on the farm, such as when his first bicycle arrived on the train, which came to town two days a week, and some not so wonderful memories, like picking rock all day in the fields or tossing hay with a pitchfork into the hay loft in 90° heat.

Growing up, Jerry attended Bismarck High School where he assumed that the team name, the Demons, was a descriptor for how students should behave. Despite that, he graduated from high school in 1969 and began a rather long college career adhering to the perspective that schooling should never interfere with his education. Jerry finally received an MA in economics from the University of North Dakota in 1984. He recently completed his PhD through Tilburg University, in the Netherlands. He has attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University as a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow and he is also a Donella Meadows Leadership Fellow.

Jerry is a certified Flow Game host. The purpose and intent of the Flow Game is to strengthen the life affirming leadership and actions of the participant. Its aim is to strengthen and bring focus into an important area or question in one’s life – be it a project, a future direction of work or relationships, or as part of personal growth. The Flow Game is ideal for work teams that wish to explore a collective as well as a personal intention or for individuals who, together with others, wish to explore a personal intention.

Jerry coauthored Talking Wires, a history of North Dakota’s rural telephone cooperatives and authored “Aid to the Poor: Am I My Brothers Keeper”, an humanities study guide. He is coauthor of several NGP publications including “The New Marketplace in European Agriculture: Environmental and Social Values within the Food Chain”, “Private Sector Protocols: Threats and Opportunities for American Farmers”, and Towards New Horizons: Trends in Transportation and Trade – Moving the Northern Great Plains Region to a Stronger Economic Future. He was an editor of Renewing the Countryside-North Dakota.