2023 SPEAKER BIOS
Jennifer Kirby
Jennifer is a community leader in Sioux Falls. She spearheaded the successful effort to bring an outdoor music venue to town, Levitt at the Falls. She is also responsible for bringing a well-designed dog park to downtown. Recently, she created the Sioux Falls Parks Foundation and is the Chair of this non-profit.
She recently co-chaired the $2.5 million Avera campaign “Home for Hope” which expanded patient housing on the Avera McKennan hospital campus and the $25 million campaign for the behavioral health expansion at Avera. She serves on the boards of Avera McKennan Hospital, Hope Coalition and the Sioux Falls Zoo and Butterfly House. She has served on the boards of Augustana University, Children’s Home Society, the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences, the Sioux Falls Food Coop and Teach for America.
Jennifer began her career at Norwest Bank in the Management Development Program in Sioux Falls. Her work continued at Wells Fargo Bank and then Palm Desert National Bank in various capacities. When she and her family lived in California, she led the fundraising effort to convert her daughters’ middle school to a charter school, Palm Desert Charter Middle School.
She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2001 with a concentration in Economics and Strategy. She also graduated from Augustana College in 1993 with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in Mathematics.
In her spare time, Jennifer swims competitively, visits with her friends and walks her dogs. Jennifer and her husband, Joe, live in downtown Sioux Falls.
Amy Sazue
Amy Sazue, Sicangu/Oglala Lakota, is the Executive Director of the Remembering the Children Memorial in Rapid City, South Dakota. Amy has almost 20 years of experience working with Native American nonprofits in and around the Black Hills region of South Dakota, primarily focusing on work with Indigenous youth. Her work with Native nonprofits has been informed by her experience growing up on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations and then residing in Rapid City for the last 20 years where she is raising her four children alongside husband, Tracy.
Amy is an active and engaged community member and advocate for equity in the Rapid City community and continually seeks opportunities and collaborations that contribute to a just and equitable community. She is currently a commissioner for the Rapid City Community Relations Commission and a board member of the Rapid City Public School Foundation and the Rapid City Arts Council. Amy holds 3 Associates degrees in Early Childhood Education from Bay Mills Community College, a Bachelors in Education from Oglala Lakota College, a Certified Fund Raising Manager (CFRM) graduate certificate from the Indiana University Lily School of Philanthropy, and is working to complete a Masters in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Arizona State University.
Amy is a proud homeowner in Sioux Addition, a community she worked in for almost a decade, that has a complex history related to the Native American community.