Joan Ganz Cooney - Later Years

Later Years

Cooney remained the chairman and chief executive officer of the CTW until 1990, when she stepped down and was replaced by David Britt, who Cooney called her "right-hand for many years". Britt had worked for her at the CTW since 1975 and its president and chief operating officer since 1988. At that time, she became chairman of the CTW's executive board, which oversaw its businesses and licensing, and became more involved in the organization's creative side. Also in 1990, Cooney married businessman Peter G. Peterson, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Richard Nixon. They met when Peterson was on the board of National Educational Television, during her presentation of Sesame Street to them. She "inherited" five stepchildren by marrying Peterson.

Cooney served on several committees and corporate boards, including the Mayo Foundation, Chase Manhattan Bank, Johnson & Johnson, and Metropolitan Life Insurance. Cooney recognized that she was invited to serve on these boards because she was a woman, and because companies were trying to be more inclusive. She also did some public speaking on the behalf of the CTW and returning to her roots, worked on documentaries. She credited her involvement with the boards with teaching her how to run an organization and about the business world. In 1990, she was the first female nonperformer to be inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1995.

In 2007, Sesame Workshop founded The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which studied how to improve children's literacy by using and developing digital technologies "grounded in detailed educational curriculum", just as was done during the development of Sesame Street.