Cultural Diplomacy and Early Education: A Conversation with Sherrie Westin, President of Sesame Street

For over fifty years, Sesame Street has proven itself capable of adapting to different cultures and celebrating diversity. In fact, Sesame Street has become the longest street in the world—reaching and teaching children in 150 countries around the world. This session will examine how Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, uses the power of media and Muppets to bring proven, locally-tailored early education to millions of children around the world across languages and cultures, while addressing challenging topics like public health, HIV awareness, and the global refugee crisis. This session will also touch on the advocacy aims of Sesame Street, and the impact that their unique programming has had in the field of education.

Sherrie Rollins Westin

Sherrie Westin is President of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street.

Westin leads the organization’s efforts to serve vulnerable children through mass media and targeted initiatives in the United States and around the world. She serves as Sesame Workshop’s chief mission ambassador, raising awareness, developing strategic partnerships, and cultivating philanthropic support to further the Workshop’s mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Working with the International Rescue Committee, Westin led Sesame Workshop’s efforts to compete for and win a historic $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response, bringing critical early education to refugee children in the Syrian response region. With an additional $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation, this initiative has expanded to Bangladesh.

Westin was named a “Leading Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine and one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” She was also recognized with the Smithsonian’s “American Ingenuity Award.” Westin is Chair of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the independent research and innovation lab named for Sesame Street’s Founder, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of UNICEFUSA, Communities in Schools, Vital Voices Partnership, and The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Westin has held leadership positions in media, nonprofit, and public service. She was Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs for President George H.W. Bush, and she held senior positions at the ABC Television Network and U.S. News & World Report.

Westin is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia College in New York.

Event info: https://www.belfercenter.org/event/cu...