Jon Parrish Peede

Jon Parrish Peede is an American book editor and literary review publisher, who served as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2018 to 2021.

Early life Jon Parrish Peede was born in Mississippi, and he grew up in Brandon, Mississippi. His father was Dr Robert Louis Peede Sr and his mother, Mary Ann Parrish. He has three brothers. He worked for the National Endowment for the Arts in senior roles from 2003 to 2011, including four years as director of literature grants.

When William Drea Adams resigned as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in May 2017, Peede became "the Trump administration’s new liaison to the N.E.H.". In March 2018, Peede was nominated by President Trump to become the new chair of the NEH. He was confirmed in April 2018. With bipartisan support in Congress, the agency budget dramatically increased during Peede's tenure from $147.9 million to $167.5 million. He also oversaw the federal agency's awarding of $75 million in CARES Act funding in direct grants and through state humanities council partnerships.

In January 2021, Peede resigned as the head of the federal agency. In a press release, the NEH credited him with creating a new category of grants to support infrastructure and capacity-building at humanities institutions, awarding emergency grants for cultural organizations affected by natural disasters, funding a partnership with the First Nations Development Institute to support the revitalization of Native American languages, and creating the "A More Perfect Union" grant program to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 2026.

Peede is a frequent advocate for improved K–12 teaching of U.S. history and civic education, and he awarded funding to create the Educating for American Democracy initiative that included 300 higher education and nonprofit partners and scholars. In partnership with the Teagle Foundation under the leadership of Andrew Delbanco, Peede provided NEH funding to support faculty salaries and programmatic expenses for undergraduate general education programs that include classics as well as contemporary literary works by authors of diverse backgrounds.

Peede is the co-editor of a collection of essays about Flannery O'Connor. He has written for numerous journals, magazines, and other publications, often on Southern culture.

His awards include an honorary degree from Manchester Community College in New Hampshire in 2019 and the President’s Medal of Distinction from California State University, Fresno in 2019.

Personal life Peede has a wife and a daughter.

Works