Jason Stanford
Empire Chicago Coordinator
Jason Stanford is a Social Studies teacher and is the Mock Trial coach at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois. After serving many years as a policeman (both his dad and uncle were also police officers), Jason Stanford wanted to experience a different side of life by becoming a teacher. With social studies being one of his favorite subjects, he sought a teaching position as a Social Studies Teacher at Niles West. Jason also founded the Niles West Mock Trial team nine years ago and he also founded the North Suburban Mock Trial Invitational at the Skokie Courthouse in Skokie, Illinois. The North Suburban Mock Trial Invitational provides teams from all over the state to compete in a regional competition in order to get ready for the state competition.
Jason and his team have competed in various competitions (Yale, Harvard and Empire) across the country. He first brought his team to Empire San Francisco in 2017 and fell in love with the organization's mission. The Niles West team has competed in all three (NY, SF & ATL) competitions. After competing in Empire NY, SF and ATL, Jason and his students decided to submit a bid for Empire to come to Chicago. The Empire organization accepted the bid and he is excited to showcase his city to the Empire family.
Currently, Jason is helping organize the first Empire competition in Chicago. Jason is really excited about the opportunity that Empire Chicago will present to teams in Illinois and he is looking forward to welcoming students from all over the world to Chicago, the city he grew up in. Jason looks forward to meeting more of the Empire family later this fall.