Sherrie Westin
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sherrie Westin is President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street that uses the power of educational media to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.
Westin leads the organization’s efforts to deliver research-driven early learning to children in more than 190 countries through mass media and community programs designed to meet the most pressing needs of children today. Westin also serves on Sesame Workshop’s Board of Trustees.
Westin, who joined Sesame Workshop in 1998 and became CEO in 2024, is the first woman to lead the organization since its co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney. Westin has led many of Sesame Workshop’s most consequential initiatives, including the recent groundbreaking public-private partnership to bring new seasons of Sesame Street to both Netflix and PBS KIDS, delivering the Workshop’s researched-based curriculum to children at a global scale while ensuring that children across the U.S. continue to have free access to Sesame Street through public television.
A passionate leader with an unwavering dedication to uplifting the lives of children, Westin serves as Sesame Workshop’s chief mission ambassador, raising awareness, developing strategic partnerships, and cultivating philanthropic support to advance its mission for children everywhere, particularly those with no other access to quality early education. Westin champions the organization’s efforts to support children coping with challenges big and small, including grief, parental addiction, and the aftermath of extreme weather.
Westin’s leadership has positioned Sesame Workshop as a global leader in autism representation, developing the organization’s autism initiative and the creation of Julia, Sesame Street’s first-ever autistic Muppet — changing perceptions, fostering understanding, and providing resources that support neurodivergent children and their families.
Westin spearheaded a partnership with the International Rescue Committee to bring early education to children affected by conflict and crisis in the Middle East, which was awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s first ever “100&Change” $100 million grant, creating the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response. This work has since expanded to reach children affected by crisis across five continents.
A staunch advocate for addressing children’s needs, Westin is a prominent voice on children’s issues and regularly appears in major media outlets and at high-profile global forums to highlight the value of investing in early childhood development, especially for the most vulnerable children.
Westin has held leadership positions in media, nonprofit, and public service. She served as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs for President George H.W. Bush, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and held senior positions at the ABC Television Network and U.S. News & World Report.
Named a “Leading Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine, one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and to Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list, Westin was also recognized with the Smithsonian’s “American Ingenuity Award” and the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Citizen Leadership by the University of Virginia.
Westin chairs the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, an independent research and innovation lab named for Sesame Street’s founder, and serves on the boards of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and Vital Voices Global Partnership. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Executive Leadership Council of the Early Childhood Development Education Action Network and the World Economic Forum Education 4.0 Alliance.
Westin is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia College in New York.
Contact for Speaking Engagements
Sesame Workshop Speakers Bureau
SpeakersBureau@sesame.org
