All North Atlanta students know Mrs. Hunter as a familiar face, even if they don’t have her as a teacher. What they may not know, however, is that Hunter has been an avid mathematician ever since she took her first calculus class, has taught at North Atlanta for almost 30 years, is the main coordinator of graduation and other senior activities, and so much more. She was even a student at Northside High School, one of the magnet schools that eventually came together to form North Atlanta as we know it today. 

Hunter’s career at North Atlanta began right after she graduated from the University of Georgia in 1993. She became a student teacher for the geometry teacher that she had when she was a student at Northside. She was surrounded by many former teachers, including her old soccer coach, who convinced her to be the assistant coach of JV soccer for a few years. When North Atlanta became extremely crowded in the 1994 school year and needed to hire more teachers, they immediately turned to Hunter. “The familiarity of North Atlanta is part of the reason I’ve spent my whole career here,” said Hunter. “I love the community that I have with the faculty here, as well as the diversity of North Atlanta’s students and staff.” 

Ever since, Hunter has contributed to North Atlanta in countless ways. Some of her favorite activities to plan are senior sunrise, the senior class party, and senior sunset, which Hunter started alongside 12th-grade administrator Jill Stewart to give the class of 2021 a special event amid their COVID-ridden senior year. She spends all year coordinating activities like these and setting the plans in motion for graduation, all while expertly teaching rigorous IB math classes and leading North Atlanta’s Mu Alpha Theta chapter. “Planning graduation and senior activities don’t feel like a chore to me,” said Hunter. “They’re things I have fun planning because I love to create spreadsheets, organize, and see something great come together.”

Another reason for Hunter’s willingness to collect cap and gown information for every student, organize photographers, and make sure senior dues are paid and yearbooks are distributed, is that she wants to see the North Atlanta graduation tradition kept alive. When she was a student at Northside, graduation was a huge production at the Civic Center that highlighted all of the performing arts talents of Northside and was rehearsed by students for weeks on end. While graduation looks a little different now, Hunter works hard every year to make sure that it’s an amazing event that parallels the old Northside graduations. “One of my favorite parts of graduation is the visions of the future ceremony, which is beautiful to watch and was an important part of Northside graduations,” said Hunter.

It’s safe to say that North Atlanta and the Dub community wouldn’t be the same without Hunter’s contributions. Especially for the senior class, Hunter always goes the extra mile to make sure that they have a memorable last year of high school no matter the circumstances.