National Geographic is unparalleled in its dedication to telling the stories of the world around us, and it is Greenfield who has made it her mission to ensure it does so in a way that is inclusive from the start. She has been hard at work with colleagues Charlene Brown and Stephen Leach to develop an internal cultural competency training program for Nat Geo with the goal being the implementation of inclusive and authentic storytelling across all content platforms.
The idea was born when Greenfield attended a cultural competency session with the ABC News staff and it was clear Nat Geo could benefit from those insights. She talked to the finance department and CEO Courteney Monroe and funding was set aside for quarterly sessions. Each session begins at the macro level, covering topics like tropes and stereotypes to avoid, consumer expectations, the market advantage that comes with authenticity and more. The facilitators then examine opportunities Nat Geo has to implement inclusive, authentic storytelling on its platforms. Each session has more than 250 employees attend in-person and virtually, and surveys afterward have strong response rates. “I consistently have employees report that they truly enjoy the sessions and want more,” Greenfield says. “They feel the intentionality.”
Nat Geo is also entering its fourth class of its HBCU Scholarship Program, an initiative Greenfield oversees that gives HBCU students a $10,000 financial award, a six-month mentorship experience with a Nat Geo exec and a one-week immersion at the company’s headquarters.
Greenfield said most participants have no idea of the opportunities that were available to them at Nat Geo. “We’ve had several scholars leave our program pursuing new areas of storytelling, be it voiceover artist to underwater photography,” she says. “They have been exposed to the best in the business, and that’s invaluable.”
Greenfield doesn’t stop there. She’s worked hard to imbue the principles of inclusive storytelling into the next generation, teaming up with the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers to connect students from state colleges with Nat Geo employees to encourage those students to bring their viewpoints to the company. She has also worked with the Bridge Lab in Harlem to expose filmmaking students to Nat Geo content.
Looking ahead, Greenfield is guiding the launch of Nat Geo’s first Authentic Storytelling Guide this fall. She worked with a DEI and media consultant to choose four Nat Geo values—inclusivity, curiosity, relevancy and cultural competency—and defined them. She laid out the advantage of incorporating those values into content and backed up those claims with consumer insights.
Also incorporated into the guide will be a roadmap for the journey of authentic storytelling, laying out concepts everyone should consider as they develop and market content for Nat Geo. “We cannot assume that everyone lines up at the same start line and will cross the finish line at the same time,” she says. “This is a journey. We hope to all learn together while allowing our consumers to see themselves in our content.”