The heart of narrative ethnography is to enable organizations to own their own narrative.

My love for the desert influences my personal life, aesthetic preferences, and research methodology.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, 2020

A woman with dark skin and braid hairstyles, smiling and wearing a black top, posing against a plain gray background.

Meet the Founder

Jeannie Smith is an accomplished nonprofit marketing professional and a trained applied cultural anthropologist.

After being laid off in 2025, Jeannie pivoted from her 12-year marketing career to address what she observed as inefficiencies in organizational narrative. Despite personal exhaustion, she remains committed to supporting nonprofits and the communities they serve. Through a relationship-driven and methodologically rigorous approach, Jeannie seeks to identify interdisciplinary strategies to support nonprofit work. Her narrative ethnography practice, The Content Jeannie, focuses on organizational narrative as a determinant of organizational health, informs capacity-building opportunities, and deepens community engagement.

Originally determined to pursue a career in computer animation, Jeannie was a locally recognized and awarded artist in her hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. However, a writing course during her freshman year at Syracuse University introduced her to a new way of understanding temporal and social relationships to oneself and their hometown community. She later changed her major to English and Textual Studies with a minor in Anthropology. This decision disappointed her high school AP art teacher, who had warned her against attending art school in case she changed her mind, which she ultimately did.

During her senior year, Jeannie studied with Dr. John Burdick, who motivated her to get a master's in Anthropology. She enrolled at The New School for Social Research in 2010. Throughout her career, Jeannie worked for regional and nationally recognized organizations. She is successful at establishing cross-functional relationships across diverse personnel landscapes, including upstream and downstream dynamics.

Combining her passions for visual and literary arts, studying human behavior, and a nerdy love for anthropological theory, Jeannie has built a career creating organizational and personal narratives that include socio-economic mobility, K-12 education, adult learning, community engagement, and workforce development.

Meet the Team

  • Cartoon drawing of a girl with glasses and a headband riding a bicycle with the letters 'L' and 'A' on the wheels.

    Jeannie Smith, M.A.

    FOUNDER & NARRATIVE ETHNOGRAPHER

    Jeannie is the Founder of The Content Jeannie. An avid adventure seeker who has never acquired her driver’s license (one day!), Jeannie has travelled all across the U.S. and internationally. A self-proclaimed intermediate “beginner” cyclist, she loves the outdoors and is “survival proficient” in Portuguese, French, German, and Norwegian.

  • Gray long-haired cat with yellow eyes lying on a black surface indoors.

    Jar Jar

    VP, OPERATIONS

    Focused, approachable, and driven by treats, Jar Jar is a quiet but loving, gentle giant who keeps our operations afloat. He is both a leader and a napper, somehow finding the perfect balance between work and life!

  • Close-up of a gray tabby kitten lying on a bed with a floral pattern, looking at the camera.

    Binks

    MARKETING DIRECTOR & FOREVER INTERN

    At two months old, Binks was championing our brand, leading Zoom(ie) calls between 9:30 pm and 6:30 am. But he still has a ways to go, learning the ropes, and unnecessarily picking on his older brother, Jar Jar (who approves his timesheets).