Stuart Jones
Principal, Founder
Stuart is an American child development professional with years of experience as Founder and CEO of multiple organizations. He has been a member of the American Camp Association (ACA) since 1994, and is a frequent speaker at both local and national ACA conferences, leading sessions on camp management, staff supervision, child development, business management, and program evaluation.
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In 2001 Stuart founded Outpost Summer Camps – a private, independent day camp offering a traditional summer program to children aged 3-14. As the largest private, family-owned day camp in San Diego, California, Outpost Summer Camps serves approximately 1500 children each summer with a staff of 200+ high school and college students. Outpost is characterized by small groups, outdoor adventure, and the consistent high quality of its program and staff.
Stuart also founded and currently serves as CEO of Acorn Evaluation, Inc., a consulting firm providing professional development and management coaching in data-driven decision making for Head Start programs in all fifty states in the US. Head Start is a federally-funded program serving one million American children ages 0-5 and their families living at the poverty level, and is currently funded at over 13 billion dollars each year.
Stuart previously served as a Senior Research Associate at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California, providing evaluation and technical assistance for a countywide health program for families with children aged 0-5, and worked as an external evaluator with the California Department of Education’s oversight of the Even Start Family Literacy program.
Stuart holds a Master's degree in developmental psychology and is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego. He is father to five children ages 23, 22, 19, 13, and 10.
Jeff Gamble
Principal, Founder
Jeff Gamble graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Biology and a BA in Psychology with a focus on Child Development. Upon graduation, Jeff co-founded Jefunira Camp. Jefunira Camp focuses on social/emotional development through play.
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Jeff is a member of the American Camp Association (ACA) and has served as an ACA Lead Visitor for over 20 years, helping camps to ensure that they are operating according to the best standards and practices of the camp industry. Jeff is also a member of the Western Association of Independent Camp (WAIC) and is the current Vice President, Chair of the Northern California section.
Jeff has been a member of the International Camp Fellowship (ICF) for a decade. He has done extensive consulting in the international camp community. From 2014- 2017, he was the Managing Director of Green Camp Bali, located in Bali, Indonesia. Jeff has consulted with camps in England, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. The majority of his international camp work has been done in the ASEAN region. Jeff is married and has three children, ages 19, 17, and 15 years old. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.