Sherrie Westin’s career has taken her to remarkable spaces, including the Oval Office at the White House and ABC Headquarters in New York City. But for the past two decades, her professional home would likely be the envy of preschoolers everywhere. It’s Sesame Street, where she’s worked alongside Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Grover, and friends on their mission to entertain and educate kids around the world.
Stepping Into the CEO Role
“I’ve loved everything I’ve done at Sesame,” Sherrie Westin says. She’s held several roles over her two decades at Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind the famous program whose purpose is to make kids “smarter, stronger and kinder.”
“I never feel like ‘been there, done that.’ The challenges, the work we’ve done, the different areas I’ve led have just always been so fascinating and so rewarding,” Westin says of her time in Sesame Workshop’s marketing, philanthropy, and social impact departments.
Yet she admits she didn’t always aspire to lead the organization. “When I started… my children were young. I had so much to do,” she recalls. “And then in more recent years, there would be oftentimes where people would say this should be the next step.”
In 2024 the board asked her, during a period of transition, to take the reins. “I stepped into the role as interim, saying, ‘I don’t want to be CEO, but I’ll be interim until you find someone,” she recalls. But her desire to become just the second woman to lead Sesame Workshop, after legendary founder Joan Ganz Cooney, shifted once she was doing the job,
“I felt so empowered,” she recalls. “I sort of said, wait a minute, what am I thinking?”
A Difficult Year
A few months after she took on the role of interim CEO, Sherrie Westin was named CEO of Sesame Workshop. For her, the core objective is to make sure Sesame is “going to be here for the next generation of children.”
To that end, 2025 proved to be what Westin describes as “a bit of a perfect storm.” She says it was “the most challenging time professionally that I’ve ever had.”
One of Sesame’s most significant revenue streams, its distribution deal with Discovery/HBO Max, ended when the streamer chose not to renew. It created “huge pressure to figure out what is that new home for Sesame.” At the same time, the federal government’s funding cuts made an impact. The loss of funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounted for less than 4% of Sesame’s total budget, and the elimination of USAID funds shut down some of Sesame’s international work.
“In a country like Bangladesh, USAID funding was a hundred percent of our funding there. That I did not anticipate,” noted Westin.
The needed adjustments included laying off some of the Sesame Workshop’s employees. “We knew with the media landscape changing that we were going to have to rightsize the organization. That is so hard,” Westin explains. “Especially when you’ve been somewhere as long as I have to do any sort of downsizing. It is really painful.”
The Path Forward For Sesame
Despite these setbacks, Westin secured a critical distribution deal with Netflix, and Sesame Street premiered its 56th season in September 2025 on Netflix and PBS.
“Netflix allows us to have a reach of 190 countries, 330 million homes, you know, 30-plus languages, which is fantastic for our mission.”
The public-private partnership was important for Westin. “We don’t want to be reaching only children who can afford a streaming service. Part of Sesame’s DNA is being on public broadcasting and being there for all children, domestically.”
Despite the Netflix deal, Westin still needs to focus her team’s efforts on fundraising to help cover operating expenses. “We still have a large budget deficit,” notes Westin. “The challenge today is really to help people understand that we need their support to sustain Sesame’s work. And I firmly believe the need for Sesame has never been greater.”
Westin’s Leadership Strategies
Sherrie Westin’s approach to leading Sesame Workshop centers on a deep understanding of the nonprofit’s mission and being true to herself. “I think it’s just about authenticity,” she explains. “People are not going to all agree with me… but I do hope that they know that my intentions are honorable, that I’m always trying to do what I believe is the best thing for the organization.”
It’s something she can trace back to early in her career when she worked as an aide for President George H.W. Bush. “I think it probably just taught me so much about the importance of integrity and character and a clear North Star in a leader to inspire others,” she recalled.
“Even when things weren’t, maybe what you had hoped. And there were an awful lot of challenges. I never doubted President Bush’s character or his intention to do the right thing,” Westin said.
Advice For Building a Career You Love
Sherrie Westin readily admits she did not have one grand plan for her career. Beyond the White House, Westin has worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, ABC News, and ABC Network.
“I certainly didn’t do that deliberately,” Westin admits. “But it’s a huge advantage. And even today at Sesame Workshop as CEO, I draw upon my experience in Washington as much as I do my experience at ABC.”
For students and young professionals, Westin offers wisdom gained from her non-linear path: “Be really open to experiences, to interviews, even if you learn you hate something, that was really valuable.” She adds, “You’re learning things you don’t even realize you’re learning when you’re exposed to a different industry or a different branch of government, or just a different sector.”
Today, Westin embraces her role as CEO, and all that she has learned along the way, with gratitude: “I am so privileged to lead this organization. I am so proud of what we’ve come through.”
MORE ON HERMONEY:
- JPMorgan’s Kristin Lemkau on Building Success, Feeling “Unstoppable” And Overcoming Personal Loss
- The Best Budgeting Tips for Your 40s and 50s
- February’s Best High-Yield Savings Accounts
