About

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

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California, 2020

The heart of my work is to enable organizations to better understand their impact.

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

My Story

I've always been closely connected to work that aims to make a positive difference. When I was young, I participated in a local arts nonprofit and was fortunate to know the founders personally: they were my neighbors downstairs, and I even babysat their children. Each day, I was among over 50 young people dedicated to honing our skills. From this, I saw directly how much leaders sacrifice, both personally and financially, just to keep their doors open and continue their inspiring work.

I've devoted my career to that world. After thirteen wonderful years in nonprofit marketing and communications, collaborating with both regional and national organizations and fueled by a genuine passion for creating access and breaking down barriers, I often felt the strain of burnout. What I kept noticing was a familiar pattern: leadership sharing one story, staff sharing another, marketing using language that doesn’t quite match, and supporters describing something entirely different. I believe that understanding these disconnects is a step toward building more authentic connections and making a meaningful impact together.

When my position was eliminated, I had to figure out my next steps. I decided to stay in the sector because I still believed in what I do. I wasn’t completely recovered yet, but I gained a deeper understanding of my challenges and realized that my burnout wasn’t a personal failure.

Organizations that focus on amplifying their unique strengths instead of just broadening individual stories tend to last longer and thrive. That's why I believe in this approach.

My Formation

I'm an applied anthropologist with an M.A. from The New School for Social Research. During my undergraduate studies at Syracuse University, I minored in anthropology and took a semester-long research seminar on religion and society in Brazil with Dr. John Burdick. That experience shaped how I view organizations: as living systems of meaning, not merely operational structures.

My practice draws on qualitative research methods, institutional analysis, organizational development, and nonprofit management concepts, giving me both the methodological rigor to diagnose narrative chaos and the sector fluency to understand the cost to organizations when it goes unaddressed. Previous employers include:

Cornell University - Weill Cornell Medicine

Per Scholas

Instride

Western Governors University

Pepperdine University

Saga Education

I am a certified Nonprofit Lifecycles capacity builder and a member of the Association for Research for Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

My Practice

The Content Jeannie exists because mission clarity is the foundation for everything else, including marketing, fundraising, programming, and board governance. Everything suffers when you don't define the criteria for mission success.

To do this, I embed myself in organizations, listen to the people who make the work happen, and build the infrastructure that allows everyone to operate from a shared organizational reality.

This is not consulting from the outside. It's discovery from within.

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.

    My love for the desert shapes how I work: slowly, attentively, in conditions that demand patience. I've traveled across the U.S. and internationally. I don't have my license (yet!). I'm a self-proclaimed intermediate cyclist and proficient in survival skills 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 motivated by treats, Jar Jar is a quiet, loving, gentle giant who keeps our operations running smoothly. He is both a leader and a napper, somehow finding the perfect balance between work and relaxation!

  • 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 lot to learn, including the basics, and he unnecessarily picks on his older brother, Jar Jar (who approves his timesheets).