NewsLeader - 2005 Fall/Winter

Introducing the 2006 GLMA Slate of Executive Officers

Donna Milner
GLMA President 2006

Donna Milner has been an educator for thirty years spending 24 years in the elementary classroom and the last 6 years in an elementary media center. She earned both her B.S. in Elementary Education and her M.Ed in Instructional Technology/Media from Valdosta State University. She has taught in large and small schools both urban and rural in 8 different counties of Georgia. She has often served her schools on curriculum, media and technology committees. In 2004 she was named the Georgia Library Media Specialist of the Year. She has served as the co-chair for GLMA District 1 and GLMA President-elect. She serves on the state steering committee for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl and has been instrumental in launching the Southern Regional Bowl of the HRRB. She sees the greatest challenge for GLMA this year to be to succinctly prove a direct connection between the achievement of students in core curriculum areas and the viability of the media program in the students’ school. A further challenge necessitated by the first will be to bring as many of Georgia’s media specialists/ school library teachers into GLMA as possible to facilitate the work at hand.


Rosalind Dennis
GLMA Secretary 2005
Nominated for President-Elect 2006

Never in all of her childhood dreams did Rosalind Dennis believe that she would become a librarian. However, her mom’s infectious enthusiasm and high energy in serving stakeholders as Library Media Specialist and Coordinator in Lamar and Pike counties for over 30 years had a profound and lasting influence on her decision to become a Library Media Specialist/Teacher-Librarian. Of note is the fact that her mom, Mable Underwood, was the first President (1971-72) of the Georgia Library Media Department of the Georgia Association of Education (formed after the merger of GTEA and GEA).

Rosalind earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from West Georgia College, and both the Master and Specialist’s degrees in Library and Information Studies from Atlanta University. Additional work has been completed at the State University of West Georgia, Georgia State University, and Catholic University of America.

Rosalind’s library experience includes service at the college, middle, and high school levels. She began her school library tenure in the DeKalb County School System at Lakeside High School, where she served as teacher-librarian for eight years. A family move provided the opportunity for Rosalind to work as a middle school teacher-librarian for five years in Louisville, Kentucky. Upon the family’s return to Georgia in 1999, Rosalind reconnected with DeKalb as teacher-librarian at Stephenson High School, where she served for six years. Rosalind was selected as DeKalb Library Media Specialist of the Year in 2004. In April 2005, she began her current position as Librarian at-Large in the DeKalb County School System. Reaching well beyond the walls of DeKalb, Rosalind is an advisor for the Georgia Association of Media Assistants (GAMA), and serves on the Steering Committee of the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl (HRRB).

Recognizing the importance of professional involvement, Rosalind is a member of GAIT, GLMA, AASL and ALA. She currently serves as GLMA secretary. In addition to membership in these organizations, Rosalind has been involved in several national initiatives, including serving on the library media standards validating team for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and for the last four years serving as one of six national trainers for the Assessment Center Exercises of the Early Childhood through Young Adulthood/Library Media certificate.


Kathleen Disney
Nominated for Secretary 2006

Kathleen DisneyKathleen earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Georgia State University, her Middle Grades Teaching Certification and Masters Degree from Berry College, and her Masters and Specialists Degrees in Instructional Technology from The University of Georgia. She has also been Nationally Board Certified since 2002 in the area of Early Childhood through Young Adulthood Library Media.

Kathleen’s library experience includes service at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She was employed by Trion City Schools, in North Georgia for 16 years. Her role as media specialist varied throughout those years. For 5 years she was responsible for coordinating the library media program for kindergarten through 7th grades. Schools merged, making Trion Elementary and Trion High School a PreK-12 school with one shared media center where Kathleen was primarily in charge of PreK-5 but served as the System Media Contact Person PreK through 12th grades for 5 years. Kathleen also taught 5th grade English for 3 years.

Her professional affiliations include, GLMA, ALA, GEA, and NEA.


Rebecca Amerson
GLMA Treasurer 2005
GaCOMO Treasurer 2005
Nominated for Treasurer 2006

Rebecca Amerson is a National Board Certified Library Teacher and Media Specialist at Woodstock High School in Cherokee County.  She has been in education for 31 years and in the media center for 22 of those years. She has a BA and MEd in Biology and an MEd and EdS in Library/Media from Georgia Southern University.  She is a member of ALA, AASL, GLMA and GAIT.  She has been a presenter at GaCOMO and the Kennesaw University Conference on Literature for Children and Adolescents. She has created the WHS Media Center web page used extensively by faculty and students for information access and class projects.  Rebecca is currently serving as treasurer of GLMA and the chairman of Cherokee County's thirty-four media specialists.  She has served on two SACS visiting teams, facilitated the complete remodeling of two media centers, opened the media center of a new elementary school, and implemented an extensive monthly staff development program at the system level for media staff.