Jodi McDaniel, a professional assistant for Fulton County Schools, was named the system’s 2024-2025 Support Professional of the Year.
McDaniel supports two district zone superintendents in Zones 4 (Sandy Springs) and 7 (Alpharetta and Milton), working out of the North Learning Center at 450 Northridge Pkwy., Sandy Springs.
In addition to supporting administrative leadership, her responsibilities include managing stakeholder concerns from 30 schools, organizing principal and assistant principal interviews, coordinating zone principal meetings, co-developing and maintaining budgets, overseeing professional calendar,s and providing support to and collaborating with Zone 5 and 6 superintendents.
Before joining FCS in 2019, McDaniel worked as a project manager for a printing company and as a packaging and graphics manager for a pharmaceutical company. She holds a college degree in graphic design.
“After working in the corporate world for a large portion of my career, I realized that I had a passion for helping people. At the time, my youngest daughter was wrapping up her high school career and my eight years of volunteering on the school booster club board was ending. I knew I needed to find a way to fill that void,” McDaniel told Rough Draft.
Her husband was working in education and suggested that she also consider working for Fulton County Schools, she said. Her career with FCS began at Centennial High School in Roswell before moving to the district office to work for the Fulton County athletic director before working for the zone superintendents.
McDaniel said being named Support Professional of the Year means so much because she knows others value her work. She said she strives for customer service excellence and believes that relationships matter.
Zone 4 Superintendent Alexandra Bates said that McDaniel is “a classic case of all that is good with Fulton County Schools.”
She quickly became indispensable in the chief of staff’s division, Bates said, and she has a true servant’s attitude.
Zone 7 Superintendent Kibbey Crumbley said that in less than a year in this role, she revolutionized their efficiencies because of her outstanding communications skills.
McDaniel said in her position she often manages incoming calls from their stakeholders, employees, and local businesses. By making it a priority to learn what responsibilities the various FCS departments had, along with the district’s policies and processes affecting schools, McDaniel said she minimizes the number of times calls were shuffled around to other departments. She developed an efficient system to collect, respond, resolve, and close out complaints and concerns.
Azuloy Life, a sixth grade reading and English language arts teacher at Sandtown Middle School, was named the FCS 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year. Lake Windward Elementary School Cafeteria Manager Deborah Yi was named the School Professional of the Year.
