Sesame Workshop has hired Alison Bryant as its first-ever chief research, data and impact officer, in an effort to better identify the needs of kids and make a greater impact with its content.

Bryant will chiefly oversee research at Sesame Workshop, and Sesame’s independent research group The Joan Ganz Cooney Center will report to her. Sesame already has a long history of using findings generated by the Center to inform its content business, but Bryant will expand on these efforts with strategic planning and assessment. She intends to use data to determine how effective the company’s content is at teaching children, as well as mining for insights into the most pressing issues for kids and families.

Bryant joins Sesame as it works to expand resource programs such as “Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children,” which is designed to help families create routines and cope with change. It has also been recently launched several racial justice initiatives—including See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special, which celebrates the diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Prior to joining the Workshop in January, Bryant was an SVP of research at interest group AARP, where she led a research team that explored topics such as how to make the internet more accessible and how grandparents can play a bigger role in the lives of their grandkids. Her first C-suite role was as CEO of Playscience, a research and design agency that develops kids and family products with Disney and Sesame.

Based in New York, Bryant reports to Sesame Workshop CEO Steve Youngwood.