Joan Ganz Cooney, whose research led to the creation of the children’s public-television series “Sesame Street” in the late 1960’s, has announced that she will step down as chief executive officer of the Children’s Television Workshop, which produces the show.
David V.B. Britt, currently the president and chief operating officer at the CTW, will take on Ms. Cooney’s duties, officials announced.
Ms. Cooney, 60, will become chairman of the executive committee of the CTW’s board of trustees.
“This seems to me the right moment in CTW’s life and my own to make a change,” Ms. Cooney said.
Under Ms. Cooney’s direction, the CTW developed such widely watched educational programming as “The Electric Company,” the math series “Square One TV,” and the science series “3-2-1 Contact.”
Mr. Britt, 53, worked in Washington for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before joining a CTW research project on cable television in 1971.
In 1974, he became the CTW’s vice president for corporate development and, in 1988, its president and chief operating officer.
John Erickson, Oregon’s superintendent of public instruction, has announced that he will resign his post effective Oct. 1.
Mr. Erickson, who succeeded Verne Duncan in the office last December, said he has accepted a management position with the TI-IN Network, a San Antonio company that broadcasts educational programming by satellite to rural schools.
Gov. Neil Goldschmidt is expected to appoint an interim superintendent until January, when Norma Paulus takes office. Ms. Paulus won the job by defeating Mr. Erickson and three other contenders in a May primary election.
