April E. Bell

Director of Constituent Relations

In her role as Director of Constituent Relations, April is focused on  growing NCCEP’s professional learning community, enhancing engagement with GEAR UP sites, and expanding professional development opportunities with the intent of increasing programmatic and student impact.
 
Prior to joining NCCEP, April served as the Director of the College Readiness Division within Baltimore City Public Schools, where she was responsible for providing districtwide leadership for K-12 strategic programming including the Baltimore GEAR UP Program. She also led college access initiatives in collaboration with district administrators, principals, school counselors, teachers and community partners. 

From 2007 to 2014, April served in multiple leadership roles within the College Board, including Director of Membership Mobilization and Engagement, where she was responsible for organizational outreach and engagement and the promotion of professional development and training opportunities for the college access and success sector.  While at the College Board she also served as Director of College and Career Planning and Director within the National Office for School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA).  This work provided April the opportunity to lead international, national, state, district and building-level training for education, business and community stakeholders. Early in her career she was a middle school teacher and high school college advisor within Baltimore City Public Schools.
 
April has written several publications and is featured as a college and career readiness expert in numerous media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal and Seventeen Magazine. 

April holds an M.A. in Nonprofit Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University, and graduated from Morgan State University with her B.A. in Education.

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