The National Geographic Society has to address ugly truths in its history as it reboots under new CEO Jill Tiefenthaler and taps the society’s 134-year legacy of exploration.

Tiefenthaler writes of “facing up to our history of colonialism, racism, and sexism” in a letter accompanying the organization’s new strategic plan. “For much of our past, we primarily funded white American men who set out to ‘discover’ the world.”

The plan pledges to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything from hiring and grant making to programs and corporate partnerships. Tiefenthaler says that work has begun. Five trustees appointed in January included four women, bringing the board to gender parity. Of Tiefenthaler’s eight hires to her team of senior executives, five are people of color.

Women now receive about half of the society’s grants, and nearly two-thirds of awards are going to explorers outside the United States doing work in their own countries.

Shannon Bartlett, Tiefenthaler’s hire as the society’s first chief officer for diversity, equity, and inclusion, says the organization has ended partnerships with outside entities whose DEI values were at odds with the society’s.

“We’re talking about DEI at all levels of the organization,” says Bartlett, a former corporate attorney who was at Northwestern and the University of Chicago before coming to the society. “I’ve never been at an organization where I’ve seen so much commitment and willingness to pivot, change, and make important decisions.”

An equity advocate who has advised DEI efforts at big organizations applauded the society’s acknowledgment of its harmful legacy and the moves in staff and leadership. Still, the society’s commitment to equity does not include measurable goals for increasing staff, leadership, or grantee diversity. “You cannot be accountable externally and internally if you don’t have those numbers and they’re not public,” says the advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ties to the society. “It’s scary to do, but without it, you’ve just said a lot of words.”

The society says it doesn’t have “targeted DEI goals” but wants its staff to reflect the Washington, D.C., metro area and its explorer community to “reflect the rich demographic diversity of the globe.”

A Marie Antoinette View

As the publisher of a magazine that reached tens of millions, the society long had influence that few nonprofits can match: For more than a century, it literally shaped how millions of Americans saw the world. Often, however, the magazine reflected the worldview of its leaders: a series of white, elite, often wealthy men.

“It has been suggested that a reader who depended solely on The Geographic would have about the same viewpoint as Marie Antoinette achieved from her apartment at Versailles,” a New York Times reporter wrote in 1970.

In 2018, in a letter accompanying an issue devoted to race, the magazine acknowledged shocking individual examples of racism in its coverage along with persistent racist themes. “Until the 1970s National Geographic all but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborers or domestic workers,” wrote editor Susan Goldberg. “Meanwhile it pictured ‘natives’ elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages — every type of cliché.”

Goldberg was the first woman and the first Jewish person to lead the magazine — “a member of two groups that also once faced discrimination here,” she noted.

Tiefenthaler says her childhood on a farm taught her about gender equity. “Parents are side by side in partnership,” she says. “No one goes off to work, and everyone’s together all day, pulling in the same direction.”

The push for diversity among the society’s explorers is critical to find solutions to save the planet, Tiefenthaler says. People facing the most urgent threats — particularly in the Global South — will come up with the most innovative solutions. “If all of our explorers are white North American men, we’re missing out on reach around the globe, which is part of our mission, but also on some of the best talent and ideas.”