Shelly Darby

Shelly Darby joined The Gainesville Sun as sports editor in January 2022, and she also leads coverage of sports for the Ocala Star-Banner and the Daily Commercial in Leesburg. Darby, the first woman to hold the top editing role for sports in any of those newsrooms in recent history, went to north central Florida from West Palm Beach, where she held several editing roles and previously was assistant sports editor at the Detroit Free Press, all part of Gannett’s USA Today network. She grew up in Wheeling, Illinois, and is a graduate of the University of Kansas.