McCrimmon's spelling bee win won her a full scholarship to Colorado College, where she graduated with a degree in journalism in 1987.[2] After college, she began to work for the Rocky Mountain News and served as their Washington, D.C. correspondent until 1996 and continued at the paper until it closed in 2009.[7][8] In the early 1990s, CNN began broadcasting the National Spelling Bee and invited her to be a commentator.[2]ESPN2 began broadcasting the contest in 1994, and McCrimmon became their commentator until 2005.[2][9]
^Reader's Direst 1980 Almanac and Yearbook, p.690 (1980) (ISBN978-0895770790) ("Katie Kerwin, 13, of Denver, won the National Spelling Bee by spelling "maculature" correctly")