A Team With A Common Vision

 
 

School Leadership

Jennifer Stover, Head of School

Jennifer Stover is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and lives in Oglala, S.D., with her husband and two children. Jennifer is a high school graduate of Pine Ridge High School and holds several degrees from Oglala Lakota College including an Associate of Arts degree in Science, Engineering, and Math, an Associate of Arts degree in Life Sciences, a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, 7-12 Secondary Physical Science, and Master of Arts degree in Lakota Leadership and Management and is currently working on her second master’s degree in education. In 2004, she was an intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She’s also a certified math and science teacher for grades 5-12. Before joining the Girls’ School in 2022, Jennifer was a high school math teacher at Pine Ridge High School in Pine Ridge, S.D., where she taught for 10 years. She has also taught at Wolf Creek School in Pine Ridge as a middle school science teacher and Foothill High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a high school science teacher. Jennifer believes Lakota Language, Culture, and Art are the foundation of a great, well-rounded education for our young Lakota girls. She is driven by our mission to help them become leaders in their families, communities, and society and to pass on their knowledge to their children and future generations to come. She feels it’s important for our young Lakota girls to learn as much knowledge as they can about themselves and the world around them as they thrive and grow into strong, intelligent, Lakota women and preserve that knowledge and give it back to the people.

Christopher G Bordeaux, Provost

Christopher Bordeaux is stepping in as Interim Head for the 2022-2022 academic school year. Chris Bordeaux joined the support of the Pine Ridge Girls’ School as a founding board member in 2016 and early thought leader shaping the mission back in 2013. He and his wife Deborah Witt have both been invaluable educators with decades of experience between the two of them in K-12 education. Chris is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota, Rosebud Sioux Tribe. He earned his B.S in Elementary Education from Black Hills State College and his M.A. in Educational Administration from Oglala Lakota College. He’s been a teacher, a principal, served on several school boards, and successfully led the creation of Gifted and Talented Programs in two schools. Most recently, as the Executive Director of the Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium, he worked closely with Language staff to create an Oral Language Proficiency Assessment. Today, in addition to his work with the Pine Ridge Girls School, he continues consulting with several Tribal Schools and Tribes to strengthen their education programs for native youth.

 

Our Founders

Featured
Victoria Shorr “No one stewards the earth like Native people. Empowering the voice of Lakota girls is empowering a vision of sustainability for all of us. ” In 2013, Victoria Shorr, co-founder of the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, r

Victoria Shorr

“No one stewards the earth like Native people. Empowering the voice of Lakota girls is empowering a vision of sustainability for all of us. ”

In 2013, Victoria Shorr, co-founder of the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, read several statistics about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  One mentioned that 1-in-4 babies was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, mostly to teen mothers.  The other told of the shocking number of 12-year-old girls who were walking into the woods and hanging themselves. She decided to do the one thing she could— found a college-prep girls' school on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

A critically acclaimed novelist and Girls’ Education activist, Victoria herself is the product of an all-women’s education as an alumna of Wellesley College.

Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs “Women are the backbone of the Lakota Nation.” A Lakota visionary and educator, Ethleen joined Victoria Shorr and Carole Goldberg as PRGS co-founders and worked with other Native educators to define what a truly e

Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs

“Women are the backbone of the Lakota Nation.”

A Lakota visionary and educator, Ethleen joined Victoria Shorr and Carole Goldberg as PRGS co-founders and worked with other Native educators to define what a truly empowering education would look like for the girls of the Pine Ridge.

Carole Goldberg “This school is nothing short of a miracle.” One of UCLA’s first female faculty members in 1972, Carole served as associate dean of the law school, chair of the UCLA Academic Senate, and UCLA vice chancellor for academic per

Carole Goldberg

“This school is nothing short of a miracle.”

One of UCLA’s first female faculty members in 1972, Carole served as associate dean of the law school, chair of the UCLA Academic Senate, and UCLA vice chancellor for academic personnel. She also founded and ran the university’s joint J.D./M.A. degree in American Indian Studies and the law school’s Native Nations Law and Policy Center.

President Obama appointed her to serve on the Indian Law and Order Commission, created by Congress to investigate and report on tribal community safety and justice. She has also written several books and co-authored Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the definitive treatise in the field.

C.J. Dempsey “I knew the school was on the precipice of something profound.” Originally from the Flathead Reservation in NW Montana, C.J. has a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from The New

C.J. Dempsey

“I knew the school was on the precipice of something profound.”

Originally from the Flathead Reservation in NW Montana, C.J. has a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from The New School. She currently works as an Associate Director at HERS -- an organization dedicated to closing the gender equity gap of leadership within higher education. C.J. helped lead the founding business plan for Pine Ridge Girls’ School, which included a needs assessment of the community and research of comparable school models.

 
 
 
 

Our Board

Our Board includes recognized educators from across the nation working together with notable civic leaders of the Lakota Nation towards a common vision.

OFFICERS:
Victoria Shorr, President
Carole Goldberg, Vice President
Caitlin Dempsey, Secretary
Jack Zeller, CPA, Treasurer

 

Dorothy Alther
(Oglala Lakota)
Executive Director, California Indian Legal Services

Jackie Blackbird
(Gros-Ventre/Assiniboine)
Nike Global Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager

Prairie Bighorn-Blount
(Fort Peck Sioux)
Executive Director, American Indian Business Leaders

Christopher Bordeaux
(Sicangu Lakota)
Executive Director, Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium

Megan Callaway
Co-founder, The Archer School for Girls

Paul Cummins
Founder, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, & New Roads School

Vikki Eagle Bear
(Sicangu Lakota)
Principal, He Dog School, Parmelee, South Dakota

Mark Eisenbraun
Founding Partner Walker and Eisenbraun Law Firm

Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs
(Oglala Lakota)
Educator/Visionary

Laurel Iron Cloud
(Oglala Lakota)
Division Chief, Tribal Government Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Services, Washington, D.C. 

Sarah Deer
(Muscogee Creek Nation)
Professor, University of Kansas, Dept. of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies & School of Public Affairs and Administration

Shirley Murphy
(Oglala Lakota)
Navy Veteran, Cultural Psychologist

Sid Perkins
Managing Partner & Founder, Ion Energy Group

Susan Saltz
Community Activist, and documentary filmmaker

Jennifer Spotted Bear
(Oglala Lakota)
Secretary/Supervisor, Oglala Sioux Tribal Council 

Jim Welch
Founder/CEO, Bella Energy, Inc.

 

Our Council

 

Jodi Gillette
(Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota)
Policy Advisor,
Government Relations Sonosky, Chambers. Former Special Assistant to the President for Native American Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Gail Bruce
Founding Board Member of The American Indian College Fund & Founder of the Cultural Learning Centers Initiative for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

Cheryl Crazy Bull
(Oglala Lakota)
President, American Indian College Fund

Cecelia Firethunder
(Oglala Lakota)
Co-founder of the Oglala Lakota Women's Society

Lynn Dee Rapp
(Oglala Lakota)
Board member, The American Indian College Fund

Chris Griffiths
Community Activist

Jennifer Kim Zeller
Lawyer, specializing in real estate law