Kaitlin Yarnall

As Chief Storytelling Officer at the National Geographic Society, Kaitlin Yarnall is responsible for expanding the organization’s impact through all forms of storytelling, including photography, journalism, film, art, archives, capacity building, and mapping. Yarnall oversees a creative team that produces impact-driven media and identifies key partnership, grantmaking, archival, and other opportunities with creative talent to further amplify the Society’s mission. Over her career at National Geographic, Yarnall has assumed a variety of management roles, including executive editor and deputy creative director at National Geographic magazine, and director of cartography. She began her career at the National Geographic Society in 2005 as a cartographer. Yarnall has been a keynote speaker at conferences around the globe and has addressed the UN General Assembly, Scandinavian royals, and rock concert stadiums. She specializes in storytelling, data visualization, information graphics, cartography, and visual narratives, and has written extensively on these subjects. She holds officer positions on the boards of directors for Media Impact Funders and Jackson Wild.