Crossing the River Jordan Award

Previous Winners

Peggy Funkhouser (1999)
Peggy Funkhouser founded the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP) in 1984, serving as its president and executive director for nearly 16 years. Ms. Funkhouser led the development of LAEP from a small start-up organization into one of the nation’s largest and most successful local education funds. During her tenure as president, LAEP collaborated with foundations, corporations, educators, and community members to raise and invest more than $50 million to improve public education in Los Angeles. Under her leadership, LAEP worked to foster and support excellence in public education through activities that ranged from support and training for teachers to complex initiatives engaging schools and communities in comprehensive educational reform.

Peggy Funkhouser was a founding trustee of Public Education Network, and LAEP is one of the network’s founding members. Her contributions as a member of the network’s board of directors, and her additional years of service on the board’s Education Committee, gave vital guidance to the organization’s overall agenda as well as to the design of specific network initiatives.

Peggy Funkhouser also founded one of the most successful youth arts programs in the city of Los Angeles. When it was founded in 1973, The Performing Tree was the only organization in Los Angeles devoted exclusively to providing education in all arts disciplines. By early 2001, when Peggy Funkhouser was honored by the State of California as an Outstanding Arts Educator, over 8 million children had participated in its programs.

Peggy Funkhouser received the Crossing the River Jordan Award in recognition of her decades of work to improve educational opportunities for the children of Los Angeles, and for the vital role she played in the growth and development of the local education fund movement. David Bergholz, the founding president of Public Education Network, presented the award to Ms. Funkhouser at a rousing ceremony at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, which included a performance by Grammy Award-winning artists Sweet Honey in the Rock.