Ökten was born in İstanbul in 1970. She graduated from Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Turkish Language and Literature in 1993, and completed her Master’s degree at Marmara University Turkic Studies Institute, Department of New Turkish Literature in 1996, and her doctorate at İstanbul University, Department of New Literature in 2004. In her PhD thesis entitled “Turkish Language and Literature Education from Tanzimat to the Republic (1839-1923),” Ökten studied grammar and literature textbooks and curriculum in secondary and higher education.

Celile Ökten worked as a professor in the Department of Educational Programs at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) between 2006 and 2007. She conducted postdoctoral research on “Language planning and language policies” together with Professor Thomas Popkewitz at the same department. Ökten, later on, between 2007 and 2011, served, together with Professor François V. Tochon, as co-executive director, material developer and program organizer in a project on the restructuring of Turkish programs in American universities. Their project entitled the “Deep Approach to Language Teaching” was jointly supported by  the University of Wisconsin and the United States Department of Education.

Celile Ökten worked at Marmara and Galatasaray Universities in 2018 in İstanbul. She became an associate professor at Yıldız Technical University, Department of Turkish Language Teaching in İstanbul. Ökten served as YTU TÖMER deputy director, Erasmus coordinator, and chairman of various education commissions. She wrote encyclopedia articles, books, book chapters and articles at national and international levels in the fields of teaching Turkish as a foreign language, bilingualism, linguistics, grammar, and literature teaching.

Fluent in English and French, Ökten has participated in various studies abroad and at home on vocational education, adult education, non-formal education, and education of refugees in municipalities within the scope of the Lifelong Learning Program. She served as Education Counselor in Bern between 2022 and 2023, and was appointed as deputy minister to the Ministry of National Education in the Republic of Türkiye on June 22, .2023.