Sharon Percy Rockefeller

President and Chief Executive Officer
WETA

 

Sharon Percy Rockefeller has served the public broadcasting community for over 25 years as a leader and policymaker.  She has been president and CEO of WETA, Washington, D.C.’s flagship public television and radio stations since 1989.  She continues to guide WETA to outstanding accomplishments in broadcasting and production.  Before assuming the top post at WETA, she was a member of WETA’s Board of Trustees for seven years and a member of the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 12 years, including four years as chairman. 

A graduate of Stanford University, Rockefeller is active in a number of areas including education, fine arts, government and women’s issues.  She serves on the boards of PepsiCo, the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Sibley Memorial Hospital and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  She is president of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, chairman of board of trustees of the National Gallery of Art and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Rockefeller is the former chairwoman of the Virginia Association of Public Television Stations.  She is a trustee of the Federal City Council and a member and former chairman of the Stanford-in-Washington Council.  She was formerly a member of the board of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Stanford University, the University of Chicago, Sotheby’s, the Smithsonian Associates, the National Cathedral School, The George Washington University, the Smithsonian American Art Commission and The Phillips Collection.

In October of 1994, Rockefeller was named a recipient of the Charles Frankel Prize by the National Endowment for the Humanities in recognition of her outstanding achievements in promoting the arts and humanities in her public broadcasting career.  She has also received the Distinguished Broadcaster Award, and was named a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine.  Rockefeller has also been honored with the Women of Vision Award from the Women in Film and Video and the CINE Lifetime Achievement Award.

In West Virginia, she served for 10 years on the board of the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority.  She also acted as chairman and founder of Mountain Artisans (a quilting business for low-income artisans), served as a member of the board of directors of the Sunrise Museum and was a teacher’s assistant for the Head Start program in Coal Branch Heights.

She is married to Senator John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV of West Virginia.  They have four children and six grandchildren.