Hon. Erika C. Stallworth is a juvenile magistrate for the La Porte County Circuit Court in Indiana. She was appointed to the bench by the Hon. Thomas Alevizos in April 2023, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. W. Jonathan Forker (Ret.).
Prior to her appointment, Stallworth was Executive Director of the La Porte County Juvenile Services Center. She began with the Center in 2000 and was named Executive Director in 2009. During her tenure there, Stallworth also served as assistant director (2008), counseling supervisor (2002 to 2008), caseworker (2002), and youth specialist worker (2000 to 2002).
She received a B.A. in psychology from Spelman College (2000) and an M.S.W. from the University of Michigan (2001). Stallworth went on to complete a J.D. at Loyola University, Chicago School of Law in 2008. While a law student, she earned a certificate in Child and Family Law.
Stallworth was admitted to practice in Indiana in 2010.
In 2019, she completed the Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice certification program at the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University.
Her memberships include the La Porte County Bar Association (secretary/treasurer), the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Indiana Juvenile Detention Association, the National Juvenile Justice Network, the American Correctional Association, the Indiana Criminal Justice Association, and the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College.
Stallworth also sat as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Disproportionality in Youth Services, the La Porte County Judicial Detention Alternatives Initiative Steering Committee, and the State of Indiana Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Conditions of Confinement Workgroup and its Alternatives to Detention Workgroup (co-chair).
She is a past president of the Family Advocates, Inc. Board of Directors and the La Porte County Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education Program Advisory Committee and past co-chair of the Membership Advisory Council of the National Juvenile Justice Network.
Stallworth was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Kingsford Heights, Indiana. She attended La Porte High School. Stallworth holds the distinction of being the first African-American judicial officer in La Porte County.
