Darlington has welcomed the following new faculty and staff members since the first day of school in August:
Maddie Fox is content manager in the Communication Office. She will graduate from Berry College with her B.A. in Communication in December. While there, she has spent three years working on digital marketing for the Center for Personal and Professional Development and has held the roles of digital marketing designer, story and strategic partnership coordinator, and social media content coordinator. She has also spent three years serving as a first-year mentor for the Berry College Office of Academic Transitions. Additionally, she has had communication/marketing internships with Gordon County Schools, The Big Fake Wedding and the Sexual Assault Center of NWGA.
Payton (Payne) Guest ('10) is the executive assistant to the head of school. She holds a Bachelor of Human Environmental Sciences from The University of Alabama, where she was a member of Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society. Guest has five years of experience working in human resources, serving most recently as human resources assistant at Harbin Clinic. She is the daughter of Wendy Payne, executive assistant to the director of Pre-K to 8.
Katherine Hayes is teaching history at the Upper School. A graduate of Elmhurst College, she retired in 2020 after 28 years of teaching history at both the regular and AP levels in public and private settings. Hayes has a great deal of experience in curriculum development. Prior to her retirement, she taught at McNicholas High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served previously as a department chair.
Vicki Mayes is teaching history at the Upper School. She holds an Associate of Education from Floyd College, a B.S. in Education from West Georgia College, a Master of Education in Social Studies from the University of West Georgia and an Ed.S. in Education Leadership from Lincoln Memorial University. Recently retired, Mayes has 28 years of experience teaching history at both the regular and AP levels. She has also served as history department chair and serves on the Polk County Board of Education.
Anne Marie McDurmon ('15) is teaching Spanish at the Upper School after serving as a long-term substitute teacher since last spring. She also serves as an assistant cross country coach. McDurmon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Maryville College. During college, she was an ESL teacher/volunteer at Centro Hispano de East Tennessee in Knoxville, helping jumpstart a new ESL program at a local elementary school. She was also employed as a bilingual legal intern at Catholic Charities of East Tennessee. She is the daughter of history teacher Kelly McDurmon.
Julie Swartz will serve as accounts payable manager, effective March 21. She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Georgia and has 16 years of experience in human resources, risk management and finance. For the past nine years, she has served as an HR analyst at Harbin Clinic, where she helped evolve HR from a transactional department to a strategically oriented, forward-thinking asset of the organization. Swartz is a graduate of Floyd County's inaugural class of the Lynda Brannen Williamson Foundation Inc. Leadership Academy.
