About the Center
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop

National Advisory Board

Sandra L. Calvert Milton Chen Allison DruinJames Paul Gee Alan Gershenfeld Sharon Lynn KaganNichole PinkardDelia PompaLinda G. RobertsBob SlavinMarshall S. Smith Vivien StewartAndrea L. Taylor Ellen Ann Wartella

 
 
Alan Gershenfeld
Alan Gershenfeld

Mr. Gershenfeld has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social entrepreneurship. He is currently Co-Founder and Managing Partner of E-Line Ventures, a "double bottom line" early-stage venture fund focused on empowering individuals, small businesses and disenfranchised communities through innovative uses of personal fabrication, digital media and on-demand business services. Prior to E-Line, Mr. Gershenfeld spent seven years as CEO and Co-Founder of netomat, a leader in mobile-web community solutions. As CEO, he helped to transform a network-based art project into a pioneering software company, raising funding from VCs, strategic investors (Motorola, WPP, Forbes) and foundations (Rockefeller's ProVenEx), and securing partnerships with leading technology and content providers such as Electronic Arts, Sun Microsystems, Motorola and Miramax. netomat was selected as a Technology Pioneer at the 2007 World Economic Forum at Davos. Before co-founding netomat, Mr. Gershenfeld spent six years at Activision, a global leader in entertainment software. Titles released under his leadership include Civilization: Call to Power, Asteroids, Muppet Treasure Island, Spycraft, Pitfall, Zork and Tony Hawk Skateboarding. Prior to that, Mr. Gershenfeld spent nearly ten years in the film industry where he worked in development, production and post-production with credits on such films as Waiting for the Light, To Sleep With Anger, Reversal of Fortune and Homicide. He also directed the award-winning documentary The Expatriates.

Read About Our Legacy

Forty years after Joan Ganz Cooney's landmark study that led to the creation of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop has established The Joan Ganz Cooney Center to perpetuate Mrs. Cooney's vision in a rapidly changing world.

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