MARIETTA - Dr. Emily Lembeck, the popular superintendent of Marietta City Schools, is one of four finalists named by the Georgia School Superintendents Association for 2011 Superintendent of the Year.

The winner will be announced in December at the annual Georgia School Boards Association/GSSA Winter Conference, and will represent Georgia in the national competition. There are 180 school superintendents who oversee the 1.6 million students in Georgia's public schools, said Matt Cardoza, Georgia Department of Education spokesman.

"I'm just very, very humbled and honored," Lembeck said of the recognition.

Mary Ansley Southerland, a mortgage broker whose children attend Marietta Middle and Marietta High, said Lembeck deserves the recognition.

The daughter of a shoe salesman, Lembeck learned the education ropes by teaching children in inner-city Brooklyn. She became a first-grade teacher at West Side Elementary in 1988, rising through the ranks to become superintendent in 2005.

Southerland recalls her mother, the late Mayor Ansley Meaders, who knew Lembeck through the Partners in Education program, referring to her as "a sharp chick."

Southerland has worked closely with Lembeck throughout her tenure by serving on such boards as the Marietta Schools Foundation.

"She has had what I would call 'outside of the box' thoughts in every aspect of what she does, whether it's community involvement or in the classroom," Southerland said.

As a parent, Southerland says she has noticed an improvement in the school system under Lembeck's leadership.

"I think she has surrounded herself with good people, and that's always a sign of good leadership - to get the right people in the right places doing the right things," Southerland said.

Lembeck, whose school system continues to make AYP under No Child Left Behind, is known for her accessibility to the public. In 2000, she launched Marietta Reads!, a citywide effort to foster reading and literacy. In 2008, Marietta became one of Georgia's first charter systems. And Marietta is one of the few school districts in the nation to provide the full International Baccalaureate (K-12) program.

Lembeck, 58, who was also a finalist last year for the statewide award, was selected from among a field of twenty superintendents. She and her husband, Harry, live in Marietta.

The other finalists this year are Chris Erwin, of Banks County Schools; Dr. Sam King, of Rockdale County Schools; and Leonard McCoy, of Colquitt County Schools.