Profile

Jason Kauffeld

Director of Group Relations,
Green Lake Conference Center

Contact Details

Green Lake Conference Center
Green Lake, WI

Social Links

Bio

THE PROSAIC: Certified Program Planner (CPP) and change manager with sixteen years of experience - six in Asia, the Caribbean, and the former Soviet Union. Accomplishments: Built multinational coalitions to influence policy makers. Managed four department heads and 60 staff. Developed donors and grant writers and obtained over $2 million of funding. Created talent development programs for community and organizational leaders. Developed strategic plans that mobilized over $8 million of resources per year. Spearheaded sustainability planning that saved organizations over $500,000 a year in staff costs and energy costs. Passionate about sustainability.

THE POETIC: After finishing a project in Armenia, my wife and I sold everything we owned, invested in Google, and pursued a dream: we would travel around the world until the money ran out. Over the next thousand days and fifty countries we survived an elephant attack in Borneo, played with AIDS orphans in Africa, drank yak butter tea to make it through a frigid night on Mount Everest, and hiked forty days and forty nights through Mongolian wilderness to visit the reindeer people. We ballroom danced every chance we got. We experienced the qualities we all share with others on the planet, irrespective of culture or race or religion. For the last seven years we have shared this experience as inspirational speakers. Bonus: we still have some shares of Google left!

Master's in Natural Resources through the Peace Corps Master's International Program. Good Spanish and Nepali, some French and Armenian, survival Mandarin. MS Office, Prezi, Wordpress, Sharepoint.

Practiced in:

1) Budget preparation and financial oversight.

2) Training trainers.

3) Building high functioning teams.

4) Organizational Capacity Building.

5) Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation.

6) Improved Cookstove design and construction.

7) Sustainable Natural Resource Management.

Passionate about:

1) People-centered development

2) Gender equity

Education

University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point / United States Peace Corps
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, United States
Masters International in Natural Resource Management, 1998
International Development, Community Development, Natural Resources Management
1994 To 1998
Dissertation: (1) Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics, (2) Improved Cookstoves in Nepal
Advisor: Dr. Hans Schabel

Job History

Green Lake Conference Center
Director of Group Relations
April 2015 - present