Board of Advisors
Alice Cahn
Vice President, Cartoon Network
Alice Cahn joined the Cartoon Network in 2004 as VP Development and Acquisitions for the network's daytime schedule. She is currently VP Social Responsibility, focused on building content and partnerships with educational, business and community-based organizations.
Prior to joining Cartoon Network, Cahn served as a Managing Director of the Markle Foundation's Interactive Media for Children program (2000-03). Ms. Cahn joined Markle from SesameWorkshop, where she served as President of the Television, Film, and Video Group (1998-00.) Cahn came to SesameWorkshop from PBS where she ran Children's Programming (1993-98.)
Prior to PBS, Ms. Cahn designed national outreach programs linking media and education at Sony's Education First! foundation (1991-93); was program director for children's television at KQED, SF (1985-91); and taught elementary and Jr high students at Village Community School, NYC.
Cahn did her Masters work in Educational Technology at San Francisco State University; she holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from NYU and an RFS from Town and Country School. She serves on the advisory boards of Women in Children's Media, World Wide Orphans Foundation and the National Association for Media Literacy; and is an avid, if not expert, t-ball coach. She and her partner live in Maplewood, NJ and have 3 children.
Margot Lebenberg
Margot Lebenberg brings over fifteen years of diverse experience sitting on and counseling boards of directors of a number of companies.
Until the October 2008 sale of its education division to Edvantage Group, Ms. Lebenberg served on the board of directors of Futuremedia plc, a UK-based learning and communications company providing online education, e-marketing and brand communications services to public and private sector organizations worldwide. In 2004, Ms. Lebenberg joined the executive management team of The Princeton Review, Inc. (Nasdaq: REVU), a leading provider of test preparation, educational support and college admissions services as its Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel.
In February 2003, Ms. Lebenberg joined SoundView Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNDV), a research-driven securities firm, services including investment banking, M&A, institutional sales and trading and venture capital, as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Managing Director and Secretary. From 2001 until 2003, Ms. Lebenberg served as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., a global financial services provider to the institutional equity and fixed income markets, with products and services including sales and trading, investment banking, asset management and market data, and its affiliate, eSpeed, Inc.
Lebenberg received a J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law in 1992, and a, B.A. degree in economics and history from SUNY Binghamton in 1989. She also holds a Certificate in Finance from the Edwin Cox School of Business of Southern Methodist University in 1998 and a Certificate of Completion for Directors from Stanford Law School Director's College in 2005.
Michael H. Levine, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Sesame Workshop
Dr. Levine oversees the Center's efforts to catalyze and support research, innovation, and investment in educational media technologies for young children. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Levine served as Vice President of New Media and Executive Director of Education for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit organization's interactive media, and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of Asia and other world regions, languages and cultures. Previously, Dr. Levine oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York's groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media and primary grades reform, and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool, and early childhood initiatives. Dr. Levine has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America's most influential leaders in shaping family and children's policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including We Are Family Foundation, Ready To Learn, Talaris Institute, and Teach For America. Levine is also currently a senior associate at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University's Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University.
Robert M. Lippincott
Senior Vice President - Education, PBS
As PBS senior vice president for Education, Mr. Lippincott is responsible for the development and delivery of public media educational programming and services to teachers, students and their parents from PBS through local public television stations. He directs the PBS Teachers websites and a system-wide digital media repository. And he oversees national projects and partnerships including federal grants for PBS TeacherLine, offering online teacher professional development, and PBS Kids Raising Readers, offering programs on-air, online and in the classroom to help early learners read.
Before joining PBS, Rob has served in a wide variety of leadership positions in schools and businesses building and applying media and communications technology to education. He has been a classroom teacher, a member of the faculty of Harvard University, Graduate School of Education and a pioneer in multimedia and internet design for K-12 audiences.
Most recently, Mr. Lippincott served as senior vice president of product development for Discovery Education, the newest division of Discovery Communications, Inc., responsible for the digital video streaming, online and hard copy products developed for the home and school markets. He was President and CEO of the early-childhood assessment company, Children’s Progress, Inc. He also served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Pearson Education company, Family Education Network. And he was director of interactive technologies at WGBH Educational Foundation, Boston’s public broadcasting station.
Rob holds a Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Literature and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Harvard University.
Sarina Simon
CEO, North South Studios, LLC
Ms. Simon is the founder of NORTHSOUTH Studios (www.northsouthstudios.com) , a full service multimedia developer serving a range of clients including LeapFrog toys, Cookie Jar Entertainment, MGA Entertainment, K12, Knowledge Adventure, Kaplan Virtual Education, and many more.
Prior to founding NORTHSOUTH Studios, Simon was President and CEO of the Knowledge Kids Network, a new media production company, which created a series of award-winning interconnected websites for families that provided individualized distance learning modules for children and progress reports for their parents and caregivers
Prior to that Simon was Senior VP of Research and Development at Knowledge Universe where her team managed the successful acquisitions of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and Explore! Inc. Later she served on the Leapfrog Board of Advisors.
Simon spent eight years at Philips Media where she served as President of the Home and Family Division. She was also Editor-In-Chief of Lowell House, a California-based book publishing and packaging company and worked at Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical, where she produced educational films as Executive Producer of the educational film division.
Sarina also has extensive experience as an author, editor, lecturer, and educational consultant. She holds a B.A from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. from Columbia University.
Vice President, Cartoon Network
Alice Cahn joined the Cartoon Network in 2004 as VP Development and Acquisitions for the network's daytime schedule. She is currently VP Social Responsibility, focused on building content and partnerships with educational, business and community-based organizations.
Prior to joining Cartoon Network, Cahn served as a Managing Director of the Markle Foundation's Interactive Media for Children program (2000-03). Ms. Cahn joined Markle from SesameWorkshop, where she served as President of the Television, Film, and Video Group (1998-00.) Cahn came to SesameWorkshop from PBS where she ran Children's Programming (1993-98.)
Prior to PBS, Ms. Cahn designed national outreach programs linking media and education at Sony's Education First! foundation (1991-93); was program director for children's television at KQED, SF (1985-91); and taught elementary and Jr high students at Village Community School, NYC.
Cahn did her Masters work in Educational Technology at San Francisco State University; she holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from NYU and an RFS from Town and Country School. She serves on the advisory boards of Women in Children's Media, World Wide Orphans Foundation and the National Association for Media Literacy; and is an avid, if not expert, t-ball coach. She and her partner live in Maplewood, NJ and have 3 children.
Margot Lebenberg
Margot Lebenberg brings over fifteen years of diverse experience sitting on and counseling boards of directors of a number of companies.
Until the October 2008 sale of its education division to Edvantage Group, Ms. Lebenberg served on the board of directors of Futuremedia plc, a UK-based learning and communications company providing online education, e-marketing and brand communications services to public and private sector organizations worldwide. In 2004, Ms. Lebenberg joined the executive management team of The Princeton Review, Inc. (Nasdaq: REVU), a leading provider of test preparation, educational support and college admissions services as its Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel.
In February 2003, Ms. Lebenberg joined SoundView Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNDV), a research-driven securities firm, services including investment banking, M&A, institutional sales and trading and venture capital, as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Managing Director and Secretary. From 2001 until 2003, Ms. Lebenberg served as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., a global financial services provider to the institutional equity and fixed income markets, with products and services including sales and trading, investment banking, asset management and market data, and its affiliate, eSpeed, Inc.
Lebenberg received a J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law in 1992, and a, B.A. degree in economics and history from SUNY Binghamton in 1989. She also holds a Certificate in Finance from the Edwin Cox School of Business of Southern Methodist University in 1998 and a Certificate of Completion for Directors from Stanford Law School Director's College in 2005.
Michael H. Levine, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Sesame Workshop
Dr. Levine oversees the Center's efforts to catalyze and support research, innovation, and investment in educational media technologies for young children. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Levine served as Vice President of New Media and Executive Director of Education for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit organization's interactive media, and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of Asia and other world regions, languages and cultures. Previously, Dr. Levine oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York's groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media and primary grades reform, and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool, and early childhood initiatives. Dr. Levine has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America's most influential leaders in shaping family and children's policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including We Are Family Foundation, Ready To Learn, Talaris Institute, and Teach For America. Levine is also currently a senior associate at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University's Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University.
Robert M. Lippincott
Senior Vice President - Education, PBS
As PBS senior vice president for Education, Mr. Lippincott is responsible for the development and delivery of public media educational programming and services to teachers, students and their parents from PBS through local public television stations. He directs the PBS Teachers websites and a system-wide digital media repository. And he oversees national projects and partnerships including federal grants for PBS TeacherLine, offering online teacher professional development, and PBS Kids Raising Readers, offering programs on-air, online and in the classroom to help early learners read.
Before joining PBS, Rob has served in a wide variety of leadership positions in schools and businesses building and applying media and communications technology to education. He has been a classroom teacher, a member of the faculty of Harvard University, Graduate School of Education and a pioneer in multimedia and internet design for K-12 audiences.
Most recently, Mr. Lippincott served as senior vice president of product development for Discovery Education, the newest division of Discovery Communications, Inc., responsible for the digital video streaming, online and hard copy products developed for the home and school markets. He was President and CEO of the early-childhood assessment company, Children’s Progress, Inc. He also served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Pearson Education company, Family Education Network. And he was director of interactive technologies at WGBH Educational Foundation, Boston’s public broadcasting station.
Rob holds a Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Literature and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Harvard University.
Sarina Simon
CEO, North South Studios, LLC
Ms. Simon is the founder of NORTHSOUTH Studios (www.northsouthstudios.com) , a full service multimedia developer serving a range of clients including LeapFrog toys, Cookie Jar Entertainment, MGA Entertainment, K12, Knowledge Adventure, Kaplan Virtual Education, and many more.
Prior to founding NORTHSOUTH Studios, Simon was President and CEO of the Knowledge Kids Network, a new media production company, which created a series of award-winning interconnected websites for families that provided individualized distance learning modules for children and progress reports for their parents and caregivers
Prior to that Simon was Senior VP of Research and Development at Knowledge Universe where her team managed the successful acquisitions of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and Explore! Inc. Later she served on the Leapfrog Board of Advisors.
Simon spent eight years at Philips Media where she served as President of the Home and Family Division. She was also Editor-In-Chief of Lowell House, a California-based book publishing and packaging company and worked at Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical, where she produced educational films as Executive Producer of the educational film division.
Sarina also has extensive experience as an author, editor, lecturer, and educational consultant. She holds a B.A from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. from Columbia University.