April Stallworth has been named D219’s new Director of Strategic Partnerships & Community Relations, effective immediately, and Milo Cejovic will become Niles West High School’s new Assistant Athletics Director, effective June 1. The Niles Township High School District 219 Board of Education approved both appointments at its May 18 special board meeting.
Stallworth will succeed Jim Szczepaniak and Cejovic will succeed Terri Laux, both of whom are retiring at the end of this school year.
Stallworth has served D219 as Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and Recording Secretary to the Board of Education since she joined the district in 2017. She serves as co-sponsor for Niles North Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR) and Student Government as well as a frequent visitor to the Muslim Student Association (MSA). She founded and co-facilitates WeLead, the leadership program for women administrators at D219. She also leads the HEART Program (which stands for Helping Empower Administrative support professionals through Resources & Training) for the district’s administrative support professionals.
Stallworth created the HEART Program when she served Waukegan Public Schools as Executive Team Assistant. She worked for the Waukegan schools from 2013 to 2017. The HEART Program won the American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP) 1st Annual Eureka Award in 2015. The award is presented to an administrative professional who has conceived and executed an initiative that produced a substantive and innovative contribution to the organization for which they work.
Stallworth is also the Founder and CEO of Strong Women Strong Lives (SWSL), which provides training, coaching and consulting services for nonprofit organizations, corporations, and educational institutions throughout the nation. Through her work at SWSL, she was approached by LinkedIn to become a Learning Instructor on their global training platform. She now has authored and created two popular courses for Administrative Support Professionals that have been viewed over 400K times.
Stallworth earned a Master of Arts in Management & Leadership from Liberty University, and she holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Phoenix University.
Cejovic has served Niles West High School as the BAC Supervisor since 2017. He taught mathematics at Niles North during the 2016-17 school year, after serving as a math paraprofessional from 2011 to 2016. He is the head boys soccer coach and the girls head soccer coach at Niles West High School. He has also served as sponsor of the ACE Club, which focuses on student-athlete leadership.
Before coming to D219, Cejovic taught math at Proviso Township High School District 209. He earned a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from American College of Education as well as a Master’s in Secondary Education from National-Louis University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from DePaul University.