Sherry Lansing

Sherry Lansing is the founder and CEO of The Sherry Lansing Foundation (SLF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research, health, public education, and Encore Career opportunities. Among the foundation’s initiatives is the EnCorps Teachers Program, founded by Lansing to retrain retirees from the technology sector to serve as California public school science and math teachers. Another SLF program is PrimeTime LAUSD, a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, designed to engage retirees in improving the state of public education through targeted volunteerism. Lansing is also a founder of Stand Up To Cancer, an initiative which funds multi-institutional cancer research “dream teams.” In addition, Lansing serves on the University of California Board of Regents and on the boards of the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Carter Center, Encore.org, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, and STOP CANCER. She was appointed to the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2004.

During nearly 30 years in the motion picture business, Lansing was involved in the production, marketing, and distribution of more than 200 films, including Academy Award winners Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and Titanic (1997). In 1992, she was named Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and began an unprecedented tenure that lasted more than 12 years. In 1980, she became the first woman to head a major film studio when she was appointed President of 20th Century Fox.

Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.