Jerry Nagel, MA, Ph.D.

Worldview Intelligence Inc. 
15116 Emory Circle 
Apple Valley, MN 55124 

Office Phone: 952-255-8172 
Mobile Phone: 218-280-1105 
Email: jerry@worldviewintelligence.com 
Websitewww.worldviewintelligence.com 
Skype: jerryl.nagel  

Jerry Nagel believes strongly that participatory leadership and dialogue processes create communities and organizations where people are treated with respect and where there is an opportunity for all voices to be present and to be heard. These processes bring forth the knowledge, wisdom and leadership capacity that is within each of us, our organizations, and our communities. Jerry is deeply committed to hosting meaningful conversations around many of our most difficult issues, including race, gender, age, sexual orientation and political and economic power.

Jerry received an MA in economics from the University of North Dakota in 1984. He has taught economics classes at the University of North Dakota and University of Minnesota-Crookston. He received his PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Tilburg University, the Netherlands in May 2015, fulfilling a life-long dream. Jerry has attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University as a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow.

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 the Northern Great Plains Rural Development Commission. He also served as an economic development advisor to former North Dakota Governor Art Link.

Currently Jerry serves as the President of the Meadowlark Institute. The Meadowlark Institute trains and supports leaders in the Art of Participatory Leadership and the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations program and in customized leadership programs for individuals, businesses and organizations. The Institute also provides intergenerational and intercultural transformational leadership learning experiences focused on developing our collective capacities to work together. Institute staff and associates are experienced practitioners in community and organizational dialogues for team building, strategic and action planning, consensus building, and cross-institutional collaboration. Jerry is an experienced trainer in the Art of Participatory Leadership program. He regularly gives presentations and seminars on transformational and participatory leadership. He has also designed custom leadership programs for organizations.

Jerry is a co-founder and developer of the Worldview Intelligence program, a new approach to leadership development, conflict resolution and innovation. As a leadership practice, Worldview Intelligence offers individuals, organizations and communities the skills and ability to work with and hold differing and multiple worldviews simultaneously. Worldview Intelligence programs have been offered in large and small communities and organizations, professional associations, universities, health care organizations, and in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.

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 for the North Dakota Rural telephone Cooperative Association. The hardcover book was distributed to coop members. He authored “Aid to the Poor: Am I My Brothers Keeper”, a study guide used in a series of community humanities seminars.. Jerry 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, which was written under contract for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. He was an editor of Renewing the Countryside-North Dakota, which was written under contract for Renewing the Countryside (RTC), a Minnesota non-profit. The hardcover book was both given to various organizations and sold in bookstores by RTC.

Jerry brings a unique background in economic development focused on rural areas combined with the ability to also work in and understand large urban centers. He works with a variety of organizations of all sizes in a variety of contexts. His BA and MA in Economics is complimented by his PhD in Social Studies from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

It was Jerry’s pursuit of his PhD that brought attention to research on worldviews. With his partner, Kathy Jourdain, they have diligently and successfully worked to bring practical application to what was primarily a philosophical theory of change.

His 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.

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.

A lifelong fan of public radio, he is the past Chair of the Board for Prairie Public Broadcasting.