Meet the Founder

Cristen Agostinacchio

Educator | Former NYC Department of Education Assistant Principal | Educational Consultant | Author | Mother of Three

I Saw a Need. I Created a Solution.

Cristen Agostinacchio is an experienced educator, former Assistant Principal with the New York City Department of Education, educational consultant, and founder of Developing Creative Minds, an organization dedicated to closing learning gaps, strengthening foundational skills, and ensuring that every student has access to meaningful educational support.

Throughout her career in educational leadership, Cristen focused on identifying students' academic and social-emotional needs, analyzing assessment data, and developing targeted instructional strategies to address areas of weakness. Her work emphasized supporting diverse learners, including English as a New Language (ENL) students and students requiring additional academic and social-emotional learning (SEL) support.

Recognizing that effective instruction cannot follow a one-size-fits-all approach, Cristen worked to develop individualized instructional plans, implement appropriate scaffolding, and support differentiated teaching practices that allowed students to access grade-level content while systematically strengthening prerequisite skills.

Her educational philosophy is rooted in a fundamental principle: Before we can expect students to master increasingly complex academic concepts, we must ensure they possess the foundational skills necessary to succeed.

From Educational Leadership to a More Personal Mission

After years of working in education, Cristen made the decision to leave her leadership position with the NYC Department of Education to prioritize raising her three children.

As her children grew older, she returned to working directly with students through tutoring and individualized academic support. During this time, she began identifying a recurring pattern among students in grades five through seven: many were progressing through school without fully mastering essential skills typically introduced in the early elementary years.

Students were struggling with reading comprehension, written expression, spelling, sentence structure, number sense, and other foundational concepts. These challenges often became more apparent as academic expectations increased, particularly during the transition to middle school.

What concerned Cristen most was not simply that students were experiencing learning gaps, but that they were being asked to build increasingly complex knowledge on an incomplete academic foundation.

She recognized the need for a structured, accessible intervention resource that could help educators and families identify missing skills, provide targeted instruction, and rebuild foundational understanding without compromising a student's confidence or dignity.

The Creation of The Missing Foundation

This realization inspired Cristen to write The Missing Foundation: Rebuilding the Basics, a comprehensive educational intervention workbook designed to help students strengthen essential academic skills through explicit instruction, scaffolded learning experiences, guided practice, and purposeful skill development.

Originally inspired by the learning challenges she observed among upper-elementary and middle school students, particularly those whose early education was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the resource reflects her broader commitment to addressing foundational learning needs across grade levels.

The workbook was developed to serve as a practical instructional tool for families, tutors, teachers, SETSS providers, and educational interventionists.

Developing Creative Minds: Expanding the Mission

Through Developing Creative Minds, Cristen has expanded her work beyond individualized academic support to create a broader model of educational consulting, family engagement, instructional planning, and professional development.

Her approach connects families, educators, and schools through a shared resource and a coordinated instructional framework.

By helping parents incorporate structured practice at home, supporting tutors in following consistent instructional pacing, and guiding educators in using formative assessments to identify skill gaps and implement targeted small-group interventions, Cristen works to make academic support more intentional, accessible, and sustainable.

At the center of her mission is the belief that a child's access to effective educational support should never be determined by family income, socioeconomic circumstances, school placement, or access to private resources.

Every student deserves the opportunity to learn. Every family deserves guidance. Every educator deserves the tools to respond effectively to student needs.

Cristen's vision for Developing Creative Minds is to bridge the gap between recognizing an educational challenge and implementing a meaningful, actionable solution.

Beginning days of working as an AP September 2016

Cristen Agostinacchio recognized as one of Schneps Media's 2019 Brooklyn Power Women honorees

My son graduating kindergarten