Jael Kampfe

Jael Kampfe received her Echoing Green Fellowship to serve as editor and project manager in developing a Lakota Language textbook, which was the first full-length college curriculum written by a Native speaker. The textbook was published by the University of Utah Press. In 1998 Jael led a group of socially minded native and non-native non-profit leaders in developing Four Times Foundation, a non-profit organization that provided equity capital for reservation based Indians to start businesses. In five years, Four Times Foundation became one of the top ten best privately funded non-profits operating in Indian Country and had a track record of business success that surpassed the national average, despite working in some of the poorest counties in the United States. Jael was also board President of Adelante Foundation, a micro loan fund supporting the poorest of the poor in the La Ceiba region of Honduras. Jael left Four Times Foundation after five years to work for the Lazy EL Ranch as the first female manager of her family’s 100-year old ranching business. Jael has since started and manages her own company, Bar K Management Co., which now leases the 12,000 acre family ranch. Bar K Management Co. includes a successful 2,300 yearling angus operation, a guest ranch, and a hunting and fishing business. Jael also does executive coaching, strategic planning, and organizational and program development for non-profits. She and her husband Gerald Sherman are currently guiding an effort to replicate the Four Times model of rural economic development in the state of South Dakota in partnership with South Dakota Rural Enterprise, Inc. The new rural entrepreneur fellowship model is now in it's third year of operations.