Kristin Cook

oteworthy

Kristin Cook ’06 Goes the Extra Mile to Protect the Children of WV

BY LINDSEY BYARS

Growing up in Summers County, West Virginia, Kristin Cook knew she wanted to protect people. Today, she does, particularly children and victims of domestic abuse. Kristin Cook is the Prosecuting Attorney for Summers County, elected by the community she serves. As a child, however, protecting people looked a little different.

“When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a cop,” Kristin remembers. Terrified of the risk associated with the career choice, it was Kristin’s mother that redirected her path.

“Mom was like, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s really dangerous! You shouldn’t be a cop.’ So she convinced me at a young age that I should be a lawyer because lawyers have more success with getting the bad guys. And I think that was her way to keep me safe.”

Even if her only driving force was Kristin’s safety, her mother proved to be persuasive. If Kristin was going to affect change, she agreed with her mother, that being a lawyer should be her career goal. This focus on a law career didn’t waver as Kristin grew older. Her experiences only helped direct the type of law Kristin would practice. At Shady Spring High School, she took an environmental sciences class that sparked her interests. That, in addition to her father’s work as a coal miner, inspired her to pursue a degree in environmental law.

“You’re always going to have coal mines and you could probably make some big money if you represent the right people,” Kristin thought at the time. Her mother also worked for an engineering firm that did business with coal mines, which introduced her to cartography and GIS. If environmental law didn’t work out, Kristin decided she could fall back on map making and analysis.

After graduation, Kristin came to Concord and double majored in Geography and Sociology, minoring in Legal Studies. Splitting time between her mother in Raleigh County and her father in Summers County, Athens was close enough to both.

“Concord’s reputation in this area is great, and it was close enough that I could go have a college experience but be close to family, too,” Kristin says.

During her time spent on The Campus Beautiful, Kristin did an internship with Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick, III in the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Beckley. Between her time in the court room and returning home to work on the weekends, Kristin says she enjoyed her time at Concord. She remembers several professors who helped her move towards her goals.

“I always felt like Dr. Towers and Dr. Manzo would always go above and beyond to help in so many ways,” she says. “They always took us on different trips, but they were also there as mentors for life, not just education.”

Kristin also has fond memories of Dr. Luff who was “fun to be around and talk to” and Dr. John David Smith who helped guide the process of transitioning from Concord to law school. When Kristin goes to her local bank to open an account, the woman who helps her and recognizes her name is the same one who scanned Kristin’s lunch card in the cafeteria when she was a student.

“It’s not just about the education part,” Kristin says. “You’re always going to have people you can count on and get to know, people who are going to be there for you and reach out to you and help you in any way they can.”

After graduating from Concord University in 2006, Kristin left West Virginia for Vermont Law School. There, she completed her Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy and then graduated from the juris doctoral program in 2011. Kristin says she built relationships in Vermont, but many of her classmates were from Colorado, California, or Washington.

“Most of those people I’ll never see again. Concord’s different because it’s more of a closeknit community. You’ve seen a lot of those faces before throughout high school and you know who they are.” Kristin would not only see many of these people again, but her career would bring her back home to Summers County to serve where her journey began.

During her time in law school, the United States entered a recession that Kristin says made student loans uncertain, much less employment. Luckily, she was able to secure loans to finish law school, and when she graduated in 2011, Kristin was one of the few in her class who had a job.

“I knew I wanted to be in the government sector because of student loan forgiveness and because jobs were scarce,” Kristin says. “Just so happens that there was a law clerk job opening

Concord’s reputation in this area is great, and it was close enough that I could go have a college experience but be close to family, too.

- Kristin Cook ’06

with Judge Irons.”

Moving back home and working in Summers County with Judge Robert Irons in the 31st Judicial Circuit Court allowed Kristin to spend time in the courtroom, watching prosecutors work. It was this experience that altered her career aspirations. Instead of pursuing a career in Environmental Law, Kristin set her sights on the Prosecutor’s Office. “That got me into the government sector, back into the courtroom. Watching prosecutors and watching things going on, I thought, ‘That’s definitely something I can do,’” Kristin says.

After one year with Judge Irons, Kristin went to work with the Prosecutor’s Office in Summers and Monroe counties as an assistant prosecutor, splitting time equally between the two counties. In 2016, she decided to run for Prosecuting Attorney of Summers County and she was elected to the position. Kristin may not be fighting for the environment, but she does fight for the people of Summers County.

“The things I focus on are child sexual assault and abuse cases, and domestic violence,” Kristin says. “Those are the cases that always stick out and make you, or validate that you are doing the right thing and you’re doing this for the right reason.”

Her work has not gone unnoticed, even on the state level. In September of 2017, the West Virginia Children’s Justice Task Force, a group comprised of public and private agencies and individuals all committed to the protection of children, presented Kristin with the “Extra Mile” award. This is given to recognize professionals who demonstrate excellence in the protection of children from the impact of child abuse and neglect.

“I love what I do, I’m blessed in what I do, and I will do this as long as the people let me serve,” Kristin says.

While she does not have any immediate plans to leave southern West Virginia, Kristin does not limit the reach of service to Summers County to the Prosecutor’s office only. If she left to be on the United States Supreme Court, Kristin says that would still be serving the people she does now.

“You never restrict yourself to, ‘This is the only thing I can do to serve the people of Summers County.’ If something else comes along that I think would help the people, that I can serve them better on, then I would have to consider it. But I have no intentions on not serving the people of Summers County.”