India’s Barefoot Lawyers
Legal expertise is often expensive and inaccessible to communities around the world experiencing environmental rights violations and other issues. Similar
Ray Suarez in conversation with Sherrie Westin of Sesame Workshop. Sherrie Westin is President of Global Impact and Philanthropy for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street. She leads the Workshop’s efforts to serve vulnerable children through mass media and targeted initiatives in the United States and around the world. Westin spearheaded a partnership to create the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response, bringing critical education and nurturing care to refugee children in the Syrian response region. Working with the International Rescue Committee, she led Sesame Workshop’s efforts to compete for and win a historic $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund this work. With an additional 100M grant from The Lego Foundation, this initiative has expanded to Bangladesh. She also oversees Sesame Street in Communities, Sesame’s comprehensive initiative designed to give children the tools they need to overcome traumatic experiences. 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 held senior positions at the ABC Television Network. Westin serves on the board of directors of UNICEF USA, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and Communities in Schools. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council, and the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) Advisory Board. Westin was named a “Leading Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine and one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” and was recognized with the Smithsonian’s “American Ingenuity Award”. Westin is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia College in New York. She lives in Bronxville, New York with her husband David and her children, Lily and David.
Legal expertise is often expensive and inaccessible to communities around the world experiencing environmental rights violations and other issues. Similar
CAMFED supports the educational advancement of girls and young women in Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe through financial and
Room to Read invests in girls’ education to bring about long-term, systemic changes throughout Cambodian society. The four main elements
Global Health Informatics Institute works at the intersection of science, engineering and global health to address issues of global health.
Africa Directions builds the skills and confidence of Zambian youth with their community centers offering educational, health, and other services.
The Everybody Votes Campaign works to address and narrow the racial disparity that exists in access to voting. Nellie Sires