Na Eng
Communications Director in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Na is an Emmy Award-winning storyteller and global communications executive.
As the communications director at The McKnight Foundation, Na oversees all foundation-wide external communications and offers guidance to program staff. She also provides executive counsel on broad strategic direction as a member of McKnight's senior leadership team.
During her tenure, she has dramatically increased the Foundation's digital capacity, leading a move toward more visual storytelling, mobile responsiveness, and human centered-design. She recently conceived and launched the organization's first digital annual report, which featured human interest stories and included targeted social media campaigns. She also created the Foundation's first digital engagement officer position and established its first image library. She will soon launch the organization's first rebrand in 20+ years, which includes a redesigned web site and an overhaul of its entire digital presence.
Prior to joining McKnight, Na served as a communications lead at the American Refugee Committee, the Minnesota Council on Foundations, and Mercy Corps. In those positions, she deftly managed a variety of media relations, strategic communications, and community engagement initiatives.
Na cultivated her instinct for storytelling over two decades as a journalist in New York City. Producing for PBS and CNBC, she traveled the globe to transform complex urgent public policy issues into understandable human narratives. Her work won numerous honors, including an Emmy Award and Edward R. Murrow Award.
Na is a genocide survivor. Born in the killing fields of Cambodia just as the Khmer Rouge regime began its brutal reign, she is the youngest of seven children, raised by a widowed mother. Her family resettled in St. Paul, Minn.
She earned scholarships to attend Columbia University, where she completed an accelerated combined bachelor's and master's program. She is also a Fulbright Scholar and a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.
Na and her husband live in Minnesota with their young son.