Dr. Mary Hemphill holds a bachelor of arts in Elementary Education and Spanish from Meredith College. Following her tenure at Meredith, she returned to Southwest Elementary School in Hickory — the same school she attended as a child. Hemphill received her Masters of School Administration from Western Carolina in 2010.

In 2014, Hemphill completed her PhD through the School of Education at NC A&T State University. She previously served as principal at I. Ellis Johnson Elementary School in Scotland County where she was named Principal of the Year of Scotland County & Regional Principal of the Year for the Sandhills Region for the 2016-17 school year. Following her tenure at IEJ, she was named principal of Carver Middle School in 2018. In April of 2019, Hemphill was appointed as the state’s first director of K-12 Computer Science & Technology Education at the NC Department of Public Instruction where she currently works.