February 14, 2025

Lion Hills Center & Golf Course Director Cheryl Hubbard is retiring at the end of March. Lion Hills event coordinator Darby Unruh has been tapped to fill the position of director at Lion Hills, a full-service recreation center owned by East Mississippi Community College that boasts dining and banquet facilities, an 18-hole golf course, a pro shop, a tennis court and a swimming pool, among other amenities.

Unruh will assume the director position April 1 and is training with Hubbard in the interim.

“I am trying to get every bit of knowledge from her that I can before she retires,” Unruh said.

Hubbard was the first full-time employee EMCC hired to work at the Lion Hills Center after the college purchased the former Columbus Country Club property in 2012. Her first role at the facility was that of an accountant.

Hubbard was first hired as an accountant for EMCC in 2008, working out of the college’s Business Office on the Golden Triangle campus before transferring to Lion Hills. She was later promoted to the position of business manager at Lion Hills before taking over the director’s position in 2015.

The director of Lion Hills oversees all aspects of the daily operations of the facility, as well as budgeting, compliance, maintenance and overall management.

“Cheryl has done a wonderful job during her time at Lion Hills, and we are going to miss her tremendously,” EMCC Chief Financial Officer Tammie Holmes said. “Darby has served in multiple roles at the Lion Hills Center and her work has been phenomenal. We are excited to have her assume this position.”

Lion Hills is also home to several EMCC education programs, including Culinary Arts, Hotel & Restaurant Management, Golf & Recreational Turf Management, and Landscape Management.

The educational programs are taught out of the Lion Hills Annex, a facility on the Lion Hills Center property that operates under the umbrella of EMCC’s Career Technical Education division. Students in those programs perform supervised work at the Lion Hills Center under the direction of their instructors as part of their education.

Hubbard, who worked in the comptroller’s office at Mississippi University for Women prior to accepting a job at EMCC, said she enjoys interacting with the students.

“I am going to miss the people at Lion Hills, and I am going to miss the students,” Hubbard said. “I have always liked higher education, and I really believe in it. I believe in what we are doing here at Lion Hills to train our students.”

Unruh is an EMCC alumna who served as a student ambassador before graduating from the college in 2015. In 2017, she graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

“I graduated from Mississippi State on a Friday and started working for Lion Hills the following Monday,” Unruh said.

Since that time, she has worked for Hubbard as a secretary, assistant events coordinator and events coordinator. As an event coordinator, she oversees food and beverage services, the waitstaff, pool area and the multitude of events at the facility, which include weddings, banquets, civic group meetings and corporate events, among other things.

“Our main focus is on customer service, and I love that,” Unruh said. “I love interacting with everyone and the camaraderie at Lion Hills. I’m really excited for this new opportunity and everything that it will bring with it.”

Unruh resides in Caledonia with her husband, Ryan, and their daughter, Collins, age 2. When they aren’t working, the couple enjoy spending time on the river.

Hubbard, a Columbus native who earned a Bachelor of Accounting at Mississippi University for Women and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Mississippi, will work with her husband, Andy, at his independent insurance agency, AHI Insurance, after she retires from EMCC. The couple has a daughter, Ella, who is in high school. They like to travel, camp and garden when they aren’t working.

“I am very excited for Darby,” Hubbard said. “I think she is going to do a great job.”

Unruh said Hubbard has been her only boss since she started working at EMCC.

“We are all going to miss her very, very much,” Unruh said.