Sherrie Westin
President and Interim CEO
Sherrie Westin is President and Interim CEO of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street.
Westin directs the Workshop’s efforts to provide impactful early learning through a broad variety of media as well as targeted social impact and research initiatives that address a wide range of critical issues facing children and families around the world.
Westin spearheaded a partnership with the International Rescue Committee to bring critical early education to children in the Syrian response region, which was awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s first ever $100 million grant, creating the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response. This work has expanded to reach children affected by crisis in Bangladesh, East Africa, Latin America, and those who have been forcibly displaced from Afghanistan and Ukraine.
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 for 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.
Westin is Chair of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, serves on the boards of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and Vital Voices Global Partnership, and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council of the Early Childhood Development Education Action Network. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council.
Westin is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia College.
Contact for Speaking Engagements
Sesame Workshop Speakers Bureau
SpeakersBureau@sesame.org
