Joan Ganz Cooney born Joan Ganz on November 30 1929 is an American television writer and producer She is one of the founders of Sesame Workshop formerly Childrens Television Workshop or CTW the organization famous for the creation of the childrens television show Sesame Street which was also cocreated by her Cooney grew up in Phoenix and earned a BA degree in education from the University of Arizona in 1951 After working for the State Department in Washington DC and as a journalist in Phoenix she worked as a publicist for television and production companies in New York City In 1961 she became interested in working for educational television and became a documentary producer for New Yorks first educational TV station WNET Channel 13 Many of the programs she produced won local Emmys From Wikipedia