Smithsonian Communications Officer to Speak on Digital Innovation

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Sarah Goforth

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sarah Goforth, chief communications officer for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, will speak about digital innovation in a lunch-and-learn event on Oct. 7.

Goforth’s presentation, titled “The Three Roads to Digital Innovation,” will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Willard J. Walker Hall, Room 203. Lunch will be provided. To register for the event, visit the online registration page.

Goforth’s talk will focus on how the smartest institutions across a variety of sectors, from media to transportation to retail, have confronted technological changes successfully while staying true to their missions. She will explore the skills that entrepreneurs and leaders need to keep pace in the digital era, and reveal why the most important innovations often require not a single line of code.

The U of A’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the McMillon Innovation Studio in the Sam M. Walton College of Business are co-sponsoring the event.

Goforth, a native of Northwest Arkansas, has spent the better part of two decades helping institutions adapt to the radically new ways that audiences find and engage with information in the 21st century. As a senior producer for Discovery Channel's digital team, she was among the first generation of journalists to bring digital analytics into the news room and successfully compete for ad dollars with well-established print media.

At the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she was part of a core team that established a new science documentary production company, Tangled Bank Studios. She led the audience and digital strategies for its first three films, including the Emmy Award-winning Your Inner Fish.

In her role at the Smithsonian Institution, Goforth oversees communications, marketing, and digital strategy for the world's largest natural history museum. In this role she brings a collection of 145 million objects to the public through digital media, most recently in partnership with the Google Cultural Institute. 

Goforth has a bachelor's degree in biology from Hendrix College and a master's degree in science journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.