Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has hired a top prosecutor for the state law department's newly-created human trafficking unit.

Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Hannah Palmquist will head the new unit, starting July 1, Carr announced Thursday.

Palmquist said she was honored to step into the new role.

“Beginning on Day One, this team will fight alongside local, state and federal partners and will utilize every weapon in our arsenal to imprison those who seek to buy or sell our children, disrupt human trafficking networks and rescue those who are victims of this horrific industry,” she added.

Palmquist, 31, is a 2012 graduate of Emory University School of Law. She first took a job as an ADA in DeKalb County, then moved to Cobb County the next year. She focused her practice on crimes against women and children and quickly built a winning record. She secured a 290-year prison sentence for a man accused of—though he vehemently denied—raping a teenage girl.

She didn't back down from prosecuting domestic violence cases, even when the victims recanted testimony.

“It's a new age. We need to send the message that we are going to stand up for victims, even when they can't stand up for themselves,” Palmquist told the Daily Report in 2014 after winning a conviction of a man whose wife testified on his behalf, despite 20 years of evidence of abuse. “The important attitude to have is, when one person is victimized, our whole community suffers and we all have an interest in protecting our entire community.”

She was a Daily Report “On the Rise” honoree in 2016.

Palmquist's record led her straight to the new job as head of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, the AG said in announcing the news.

“This work requires an experienced and aggressive prosecutor of those who have abused our children, and that is what Georgians are getting with Hannah Palmquist leading this unit,” Carr said.

“We are committed to ending human trafficking in Georgia, and the creation of this new Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit speaks volumes about the importance of this issue to all Georgians,” Carr said. “We will work every single day with all of our law enforcement partners to protect our state's most vulnerable and put buyers and traffickers behind bars.”

Gov. Brian Kemp, who led the move to create the unit and secure its funding, endorsed the hire in the news release announcing it.

“I am looking forward to Hannah Palmquist's work—along with our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners—to rid our state of this evil industry,” Kemp said.