SCMLE Network - Executive Director bio

Katie Crook

Founder and Executive Director

Katie founded SCMLE in 2019 to connect South Carolina educators and strengthen support for multilingual learners and their families. A former multiingual learner/ESOL teacher and current literacy researcher at Clemson University, she brings classroom experience and a passion for building on students’ linguistic and cultural strengths to her work with educators across the state. Residing in Greenville, South Carolina, Katie and her husband, an elementary principal, have two children.

Professional Experience

Executive Director, South Carolina Multilingual Learner Educator Network (2019-present)

Graduate Research Assistant, CU Bridge ESOL, College of Education, Clemson University (2023-present)

Graduate Teacher of Record, College of Education, Clemson University (2025)

ESOL Teacher, Westcliffe Elementary, Greenville, SC (2020-2021)

ESOL Teacher, Newington Elementary, Summerville, SC (2018-2020)

ESOL Teacher, Windsor Hill Arts-Infused Elementary, North Charleston, SC (2016-2018)

Education Coordinator & English Teacher, Reghin, Romania (2014-2016)

ESL Teacher, P.S. 160, Brooklyn, NY (2011-2014)

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Selected Publications

Crook, K. M., Howell, E., Rowe, L.W., Vega, H., Bates, C.C. (2026). Co-designing multimodal, multilingual text sets: centering caregiver choice. The Reading Teacher, 80(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70088

Howell, E., Vega, H., Rowe, L. W., Crook, K. M., Bates, C. C., Mittapalli, K., & Banerjee, A. (2026). Multidimensional and burgeoning leadership: literacy and multilingualism. Education Sciences, 16(7), 1112. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16071112

Rowe, L. W., Crook, K. M., Howell, E., Vega, H., Bates, C.C. (2026). Expert literacy teachers’ instructional practices with multilingual learners: Benefits, challenges, and adaptations in response to the Science of Reading. Literacy. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.70023

Vega, H., Crook, K. M., Howell, E., Rowe, L. W., & Bates, C. C. (2025). From deficit to wealth: Amplifying voices and cultural capital of Latiné families to support multilingual learner education. Language and Education, 40(3), 654–674. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2025.2558572

Crook, K. M., Vega, H., Howell, E., Rowe, L., Bates, C. C., Mittapalli, K., & Banerjee, A. (2025). Responding to the needs of early literacy teachers: designing online professional development to improve writing instruction for multilingual learners. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01841-3

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