Christ School Admission

Prospective families will find that James Garland ’10 speaks from experience when he talks glowingly about Christ School.

Ten years after his own graduation, Mr. Garland returned as Assistant Director of Admission in 2020. He has also been a Dorm Parent and an assistant JV basketball coach.

Mr. Garland is a former Headmaster's Cup winner who attended Christ School for four years. During that time, he was active in the Theater Department and played basketball.

Mr. Garland had been involved in corporate sales since graduating with a B.S. in Business Economics from Wofford College in 2014. His primary hobby is basketball (Mr. Garland is a diehard UNC-Chapel Hill fan).

Point guards are the glue that holds any good basketball team together.

Associate Director of Admissions Erasto Hatchett has always led from the front and will strengthen the Admissions Department with his depth of educational knowledge and experience.

Mr. Hatchett grew up playing basketball in one of the hotbeds for the sport (Lexington, Ky.) and was a point guard at the college level for Johnson C. Smith University. He knew then how to motivate and make teammates better, lessons which he carried into roles in administration, admissions, teaching, coaching, and as a case manager at schools in Charlotte and Raleigh the past 22 years.

Mr. Hatchett was most recently Athletic Director, head basketball coach, and a physical education teacher at Charlotte’s Northside Christian Academy from 2016 to 2022, and prior to that was Assistant Director of Admissions at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh from 2010 to 2016.

In addition to his role in Admissions, Mr. Hatchett will be an assistant coach for Greenie basketball.

He has been married for 21 years to his wife, Tiffany, and they have two daughters, Aaliyah and Madison. Mr. Hatchett’s hobbies include basketball, naturally, as well as pickleball, table tennis and barbering.

Coco Parham P'13 has provided invaluable support as an Office Manager at Christ School for 19 years now, the past six in Admissions. 

Mrs. Parham previously worked for 13 years in the College Guidance Office as an administrative assistant and testing coordinator.

Mrs. Parham graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a B.A. in 1987. Her hobbies include hiking, reading, and watching a great movie. She prides herself on being an animal advocate and has volunteered in the past with the Asheville Humane Society.

Mrs. Parham is married to Christ School Associate Athletic Director Duncan Parham. They have two children, Ellsworth ’13 and Emma.

Enrollment and overall interest in Christ School have reached peak levels in the six years that Palmer Straughn has been Director of Admission. 

Mr. Straughn worked in college admissions for 13 years before coming to Christ School in 2017. 

A seasoned fly fisherman and backpacker, Mr. Straughn could not have picked a better school to continue his work in admissions and fuel two of his greatest passions. Christ School’s location offers world-class fly fishing and some of the Southeast’s best hiking. After heading up the Outdoor Program at Wofford College, Mr. Straughn graduated with a B.A. in History in 2004 and began as an Admission Counselor at Lees-McRae College. Mr. Straughn would go on to advance to Associate Director of Admission and Senior Associate Director of Admission at Wofford. 

Mr. Straughn co-presented “Navigating the NCAA and Admission” at the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling (SACAC) Drive-in Workshop (2015) and followed that effort the next year by co-presenting “Application Case Studies.” At the SACAC’s annual conference in 2014, Mr. Straughn co-presented “Not Just a Small School: The Benefits of a Liberal Arts College.”

Mr. Straughn and his wife, Sara, live on campus.