Sherrie Rollins Westin is an American businesswoman. She is the President of

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...

, the nonprofit educational organization that produces the television series ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

''.

Early life and education

She was born Sherrie Lynn Sandy to Charlotte Ann (née Weeks) and William Gresham Sandy of Roanoke, Virginia.New York Times: "Sherrie L. Sandy To Marry in May"
November 30, 1986 She has two siblings, William G. Sandy Jr. and

Mark Steven Sandy Mark Steven Sandy is an American career official with the U.S. federal government. He served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from January 20 to February 16, 2017. , he was the Deputy Associate Director for Nation ...

. In 1980, she graduated with a degree in Communications from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

, and in 1986 was the director of communications for the Oliver Carr Company, a real-estate development concern in Washington.

Career

After graduating, she worked at a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

marketing firm in Georgetown; and then went to her firm's primary client, the Georgetown Business and Professional Association. She then worked for the

Ronald Reagan 1984 presidential campaign President Ronald Reagan authorized the formation of his 1984 reelection campaign committee, Reagan-Bush '84, on October 17, 1983. He made the formal announcement of his candidacy for re-election on January 29, 1984. On August 23, 1984, he secure ...

, and then as head of communications for a Washington firm. In 1992, she was appointed as the first assistant secretary for public affairs at the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

(HUD) then headed by New York Republican U.S. Representative

Jack Kemp Jack French Kemp (July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009) was an American politician and a professional football player. A member of the Republican Party from New York, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bu ...

. The chairman of

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise t ...

, recruited her to become the head of communications of the division. She left ABC News to serve as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs under President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

. After his term was over, she returned to ABC as executive vice president of network communications. Westin is Chair of the

Joan Ganz Cooney Center The Joan Ganz Cooney Center (informally, the Cooney Center) is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan research and innovation group founded by Sesame Workshop to advance children's literacy skills and foster innovation in children's learning t ...

, an independent research and innovation lab named for Sesame Street’s founder. She serves on the boards of the

U.S. Global Leadership Coalition The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) is a nonprofit organization formed by a coalition of American businesses and NGOs, senior national security and foreign policy experts, faith-based and community leaders from across the United States w ...

, Communities in Schools, and

Vital Voices Global Partnership Vital Voices Global Partnership is an American international, 501(c)(3), non-profit, non-governmental organization that works with women leaders in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights. The organiz ...

. She is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

, the US-Afghan Women's Council, the Early Childhood Peace Consortium Advisory Board, and serves on the Early Childhood Development Action Network Education Leadership Council.

Awards and recognition

In 2014 Westin was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Concordia College in New York. In 2017 Westin was named one of '' Fast Company''s "100 Most Creative People in Business". She was also awarded the Smithsonian's "American Ingenuity Award".

Personal life

Westin has been married twice. In 1987, she married

Ed Rollins Edward Rollins (born March 19, 1943) is an American political consultant and advisor who has worked on several high-profile Republican political campaigns in the United States. In 1983 and 1984, he was national campaign director for the succes ...

. Westin lives in

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, a ...

, with her second husband,

David Westin David Lawrence Westin is anchor of ''Bloomberg: Balance of Power'' and ''Bloomberg Big Decisions'' on Bloomberg Television. Previously, he was an anchor on ''Bloomberg Daybreak Americas'' and ''Bloomberg GO'' which ''Daybreak'' replaced. He has a ...

; she has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westin, Sherrie Rollins Living people American television executives Women television executives University of Virginia alumni Year of birth missing (living people)