Note to editors and reporters: For photos or complete biographies of award recipients, please contact the Cal State L.A. Public Affairs office at (323) 343-3050.
Five education ‘movers & shakers’ to be honored
Los Angeles, CA – Acknowledging their major contributions and leadership in our local school community, the Friends of the Charter College of Education at California State University, Los Angeles will honor Judy Burton, Yvonne Chan and David Tokofsky at the 18th Annual Distinguished Educator Award Dinner on Friday, Nov. 16. The event, to be held at the Golden Eagle Ballroom on the Cal State L.A. campus, will begin with a reception at 5 p.m. followed by a dinner at 6 p.m.
In addition, Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to Wayne Langham, retired principal for Rosemont Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, and Judith Washburn, professor of elementary education at Cal State L.A.’s Charter College of Education.
Burton is president and CEO of Alliance for College Ready Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that aims to open and operate a network of excellent small high-performing public schools in Los Angeles that will prepare students to enter and succeed in college. The Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School (Stern MASS), a newly-established Alliance high school housed on the Cal State L.A. campus, represents a unique charter-school university partnership.
Chan is principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a large urban public school within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The Center converted to a public charter school in 1993, and the charter was renewed in 1998. Currently serving 1,900 Pre-K to 10th grade students in the area of Pacoima, it was named the 1995 California Distinguished School and the 1996 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
Tokofsky is a former teacher of John Marshall High School and former LAUSD school board member. He coached LAUSD’s first National Academic Decathlon Championship Team from Marshall High School in 1987. Under his direction, the high school’s mock trial team won the 1992 California State Championship, 1988 and 1989 Los Angeles County Championships, and placed second in the 1990 national finals. He represented Board District Five, which includes parts of East Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
The Friends of the Charter College of Education is a support group of alumni, educators and community members who seek to give scholarship assistance to students enrolled in the College’s teacher-preparation or school administrator programs and to support other activities of the College. All proceeds from the dinner will support the Friends’ Scholarship Endowment and Faculty Development funds.
For more information regarding the Distinguished Educator Award Dinner, call the Cal State L.A. Charter College of Education Development Office at (323) 343-4446.
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 200,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu