Phone: 828-227-3289
Email: kcrawford@wcu.edu
Office Address: McKee G49

Education:

• Ph.D., Florida State University, 2006
• M.S., Florida State University, 1999
• B.S., Florida State University, 1997

Biography:

Last year, I joined the faculty here at Western Carolina as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. I am a native of Florida and received all of my degrees from Florida State University. Go Seminoles!

Before I came to Western, I served as the state consultant for speech and language impairments with the Florida Department of Education in Tallahassee. In this position, I was involved in policy development, professional education and training, and the provision of technical support to school districts across the state. Although I am no longer in Tallahassee, I continue to serve as an outside consultant to the Department of Education.

Living in North Carolina is quite a change from the flat lands and high temperatures of Florida–a change that I am embracing! Joining the faculty at Western has been exciting as well. I am quite passionate about being a speech-language pathologist and hope to inspire students to develop the same passion.

My specific areas of interest in teaching and research are early assessment and intervention in language and emergent literacy, primarily with the preschool population (ages 3 to 5 years), and implementation of family-centered practices.

Additionally, I am interested in school-based issues, such as implementation of inclusionary practices and the development of school-family partnerships in the early years. In fact, while at Florida State, I served as the project/research co-coordinator for P.U.L.S.E. (Parents Using Language and Literacy for School Enrichment), a family involvement component of a university partnership with two elementary schools. I hope to continue this line of research at Western!

Other than being an SLP, I also enjoy spending time with my family and friends, cycling, reading, beading, and shopping!