Joan Cooney

• Birthplace: Phoenix, Arizona
• Birthday: November 30, 1929

The woman behind what many consider to be the most innovative educational programming in television history, Joan Ganz Cooney is the founder and chair of Children's Television Workshop (CTW), which has given the world "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company", "3-2-1 Contact" and "Ghostwriter" among many other series. A native of Phoenix, Joan Ganz started her career out of college as a journalist for the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Moving to Manhattan in the mid-1950s, she soon landed work as a publicist for NBC…more