Item hires 4, promotes 1; includes 2 reporters, 1 in graphic design, 2 in customer service

The Sumter Item has recently welcomed a handful of faces to its newsroom and customer service department that are a mix of new hires and returning employees or were promoted.

Jill Burrus was promoted, officially this week, from her role in customer service to the department's manager, filling the position left open with Kathy Stafford's retirement after 25 years with the newspaper. To fill her customer service position, The Item welcomed Destiny Hester.

Burrus is now in charge of the department that helps readers with account issues, bill payment and other questions or concerns about the newspaper and its digital platforms. Hester will help field customer calls.

Burrus is a native New Yorker who has slowly made her way down the East Coast during the last 20 years with her husband, Warren, and two teenaged daughters, Taylor and Logan. After graduating with a journalism degree from Hofstra University, she found herself in the apartment and residential property management industry - something she fell into and loved.

She joined The Item with decades of customer service experience. In her off time, she enjoys spending time with her menagerie of furry pets and family and sending innocent houseplants to an early demise.

Hester was raised in Sumter and is a Sumter High School graduate. She received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the College of Charleston this year and has now returned to her hometown.

In her spare time, she enjoys watching shows on Netflix, traveling and spending time with her friends and family.

Two additions to the newsroom have recently been made, as readers have probably already noted by the new bylines seen on its pages.

Both journalists, Ashley Miller joins The Item as a news reporter, and Isaiah Lucas joins as a sports reporter.

Miller was born in Lancaster and earned her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She says she has always been a reporter at heart, watching her grandparents read the daily newspaper, reading the comics and then becoming involved at her high school newspaper. In college, she realized she could combine her interests of crime and journalism. Before USC, she attended Kent State University and worked on the university's magazine, Fusion.

Upon returning to South Carolina, she put her skills of editing and writing to the test as a reporter for USC's Carolina News and Reporter all-digital media outlet.

Her love of talking to people, going places and putting a story together is what keeps her composed. After a long day of reporting, you can find her at home, with her dog in her lap and a movie playing, already planning out the days ahead.

In her role at The Item, Miller covers Clarendon County and general community coverage.

Lucas is a North Carolina native who recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with his Bachelor's Degree in Communication Studies. In college, he was a sports reporter for the school's student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, and also worked as a beat writing assistant for Inside Carolina.

When he isn't working, Lucas enjoys playing sports as well as attending sporting events, concerts and music festivals.

He joins The Item's sports department and will help develop its social media strategy as well as expand sponsored content and contests and help hold events such as the upcoming Media Day in addition to reporting.

Among the new faces is a familiar one The Item recently welcomed back.

Cary Howard returned to the Item's graphics department, where she worked for 13 years before a few-year stint at Hodge Systems and Consulting Services. She enjoyed that job but realized her true passion is graphic design, where she is now creating advertisements for clients and helping with other special products at The Item as well as designing the newspaper and ads for the Lexington County Chronicle, a sister newspaper to The Sumter Item located in Lexington.

In her free time, Howard enjoys spending time with her husband and their two beagles, bingeing Netflix, going to car meets and working on their Mustangs.

To reach Burrus, email jill@theitem.com or call (803) 774-1212.

To reach Hester, email destiny@theitem.com or call (803) 774-1258.

To reach Miller, email ashley@theitem.com or call (803) 774-1227.

To reach Lucas, call isaiah@theitem.com or call (803) 774-1200.

To reach Howard, call cary@theitem.com or call (803) 774-1285.

Find staff bios and more contact information at www.theitem.com/contact.