Mill Creek Middle School Librarian Kimberly George Named North Central Georgia's Library Media Specialist of the Year

Kimberly George has a sunflower bouquet in one hand, a "Congrats" balloon floating nearby, and a room full of beaming colleagues around her, a scene that tells you everything about how Mill Creek Middle School feels about its media specialist right now.

George was named the 2026 North Central Georgia Region Library Media Specialist of the Year by the Georgia Library Media Association, an honor that now places her among a small group of finalists competing for the statewide title. She had first been recognized as Cherokee County School District's Media Specialist of the Year before advancing to the regional competition, meaning she has now cleared two competitive rounds on her way to a potential state championship.

The Georgia Library Media Association, known as GLMA, is the professional organization representing school library media specialists across Georgia. Its annual awards program exists to recognize educators who go well beyond maintaining a book collection, the best in the field are active collaborators with classroom teachers, guides through research projects, and the people most responsible for putting the right book in a student's hands at the right moment. Earning the regional title means George was judged the best among library professionals serving students across Cherokee County and the surrounding communities of metro Atlanta's northern suburbs.

That's no small field to beat.

For Cherokee County families, the distinction matters because it reflects what happens every school day inside Mill Creek Middle's library. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders don't just check out books there, they learn how to find, evaluate, and use information, skills that follow them into high school, college, and beyond. The media specialist is often the one educator in a school who works across every subject and every grade level, and a great one shapes the intellectual culture of an entire building.

Mill Creek Middle is part of the Cherokee County School District, one of the largest school systems in Georgia, serving tens of thousands of students countywide. The district has no shortage of talented educators, which makes earning the district-level award, the prerequisite for regional recognition, its own significant achievement.

The statewide winner will be announced at GLMA's summer conference. If George takes that title, she would stand as the representative of school library professionals across all of Georgia, a remarkable distinction for a county whose schools continue to draw statewide notice.

The photos from the celebration in Mill Creek Middle's library capture the moment well: a crowd of colleagues, balloons, flowers, and a large GLMA award sign bearing George's name held front and center. It looks less like a formal announcement and more like a family proud of one of its own.