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Champions for Equity Award: Molly Munger & Stephen R. English 

Twenty-five years ago, a small group of civil rights lawyers started a “project” to experiment with new strategies that could change conditions on the ground in low-income communities of color. Molly Munger, Steve English, and Connie Rice, together with Penda Hair and Judith Browne Dianis in Washington DC, co-founded Advancement Project. Steve and Molly continue to serve on the board of Catalyst California, with Steve serving as board secretary and sitting on the finance committee. 

Connie received this award in 2018 and this anniversary year, we are proud to present it to Molly and Steve. No one deserves more to be celebrated for what they have contributed to Los Angeles, and California. They have brought their full hearts, amazing minds, savvy strategy, and deep compassion to all of their work, and especially to Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project California). 

Both Molly and Steve have long and distinguished personal and professional biographies – we offer a summary below to remind us of all the impact they have had. 

Molly Munger has committed her life to engineering large-scale systems change to remedy inequality, expand opportunity and open paths to upward mobility. She brings an extensive background of legal expertise, including twenty years as a federal prosecutor and business litigator, and from 1994-1998 service with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Molly also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a partner in the all-women litigation firm Baird, Munger & Meyers, and a partner in the Los Angeles office of New York-based Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. 

Together with Connie and Steve, Molly launched a coalition lawsuit, Godinez v. Davis, which won approximately $1 billion for new school construction in Los Angeles and other urban areas – representing the reclaiming of funds previously slated for less crowded, more affluent suburban school districts. Read the full story here. 

More recently, Molly became deeply involved in efforts to improve and expand early childhood education in California. Her work was critical to the development of thousands of preschool spaces that serve low income children in Los Angeles County. Molly also spearheaded the founding of the Water Cooler network of advocates, bringing together diverse stakeholders from across the state to build consensus for policy solutions that support the needs of children from birth to five.  

Molly took a greater stance in supporting the needs of California’s students by supporting the Our Children, Our Future tax initiative in 2012, which failed at the ballot box but influenced the implementation of large education funding measures. As a result, billions of dollars were directed to the highest-need students and schools across California 

Stephen R. English (Steve) Before co-founding Catalyst California in 1998, Steve was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius for twelve years, helping to manage a 20-lawyer litigation department, and from 1998 to 2016 he was a partner in the firm of English, Munger & Rice.  

As noted above, Steve was instrumental in the successful Godinez v. Davis litigation. With these funds, the Los Angeles Unified School District began its nationally recognized program to build over 130 new schools. After the court required California to develop a new system for funding school construction, Steve led Advancement Project California’s work that was instrumental in shepherding four state school construction bond initiatives that raised about $30 billion for new and renovated facilities throughout the state, including $5 billion targeted to relieve overcrowding in urban schools. From 2012 to 2016 he served as the Chair of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee.  

A committed advocate for legal services for the poor, Steve has served as board president of three major legal service providers: Public Counsel, the Inner City Law Center, and Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Steve has also served as President of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation and chaired the Litigation Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He, along with Molly and Connie, was presented with the ACLU of Southern California’s Equal Justice Advocate award in 2002. 

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