Sharon Percy Rockefeller

Sharon Percy Rockefeller, born Sharon Lee Percy, was born in 1944; her father was Charles Percy, a U.S. senator from Illinois. She graduated from Stanford University.⁠[1][1][2]

In 1967, she married Jay RockefellerJay RockefellerJay Rockefeller is an American Democratic politician and member of the Rockefeller family. In West Virginia he served successively as a member of the House of Delegates, secretary of state and the state’s 29th governor (1977–1985), and from 1985 to 2015 he represented West Virginia in the U.S. Senate, where he chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and helped create the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).Open the full entry, who later became governor of West Virginia and a U.S. senator; their wedding in Chicago appeared on the cover of Life magazine.⁠[1][2]

Before taking WETA’s top post, Rockefeller served on WETA’s board for seven years, three of them as board chair; she also served on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 12 years, four of them as board chair, and was chair of the Virginia Association of Public Television Stations.⁠[2][3]

In 1989, she became president and chief executive officer of WETA, the flagship public media station in Washington, D.C., and as of October 2026 she remains in the post. WETA is the main producer of news programs in the PBS system such as PBS NewsHour, Washington Week and PBS News Weekend. She also served on the PBS board for 19 years.⁠[2][4][3][2]

In 2014, WETA took over ownership and management of PBS NewsHour, and Rockefeller has since also served as president of News Hour Productions LLC.⁠[2]

In 2017, Rockefeller joined the board of trustees of The Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation headquartered in New York City. It was chartered by New York State legislation in 1913 with funding from Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, with the mission “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.” In its early years it funded global public health, medical education, and yellow fever vaccine research; in the mid-20th century it supported agricultural programs that came to be known as the “Green Revolution”; and in recent years it has focused its work on energy, health, food, and climate.Open the full entry, and as of October 2026 she remains a trustee.⁠[3][5]

In September 2019, the National Gallery of Art announced that Rockefeller had been reelected chair of its board; as of October 2026, she is a trustee emerita of the gallery.⁠[6][2]

On November 21, 2019, President Trump presented Rockefeller with the National Medal of Arts, honoring her as a prominent advocate for the arts, a generous supporter of philanthropy, and a pioneer of new ideas and approaches in public policy.⁠[7][7]

In 2021, Rockefeller received the Annenberg Award from the Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies (FAPE); in 2022, she joined the Council on Foreign Relations and became a member of the nominating committee for the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award.⁠[2][2]

Rockefeller is a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and chair of its International Council, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the President’s Advisory Council of the National Academy of Medicine, a trustee emerita of the Johns Hopkins Medicine board, and a member of the Library of Congress’s James Madison Council; she previously chaired the Stanford-in-Washington Council.⁠[2][3][2][2]

She has served as a director of PepsiCo and Sotheby’s, and as a director or trustee of institutions including Stanford University, the University of Chicago, George Washington University, the Phillips Collection and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.⁠[2][2][3]