Creed Strategies is a boutique consulting group with diverse expertise serving school districts, non-profits, government agencies, private entities, and philanthropy. Creed is dedicated to enhancing social transformation through an educational, racial justice, and collectivist approach to needs assessment, collaboration, planning and strategy development, and capacity building. Specializing in culturally responsive approaches to systemic change, Creed works with our partners to identify, develop, and implement sustainable equity-driven strategies for systemic problems.
Our transformation framework is designed to support the development of collaborative, strength-based, and culturally responsive learning environments that optimize student learning and student achievement in schools and districts. We empower our collaborative partners to create exemplary environments for learning, committed family and community partnerships, and outstanding student outcomes. This framework is also utilized to design collective impact strategies in other sectors and areas of need.
Lauren Wells, Ph.D.
Lauren Wells, Ph.D. is an educator, researcher, and community organizer whose work centers on comprehensive, systemic, culturally responsive, and collaborative approaches to change in schools and communities. She began her work in education over twenty years ago while an undergraduate student at Temple University. She then went on to become a high school teacher. Her experiences led her on a quest to create schools that are designed to work for and elevate Black and Brown students and their communities. Dr. Wells is trained in qualitative research and uses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding communities and schools.
She applies this approach not only to the work of school transformation, but also to transforming how communities, educators, and policymakers think about, approach, and undertake school change. Wells has been at the forefront of education policy and transformation in New Jersey for over 15 years.
In 2009, Dr. Wells became the Director of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education at the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University (NYU) where she the led the design and implementation of a major school reform initiative in Newark called the “Newark Global Village School Zone.” This reform has had a lasting impact on the Central High School, one of Newark’s comprehensive high schools. She has served as Chief Education Officer for Mayor Ras Baraka in the City of Newark, where she led education policy and developed initiatives on behalf of the City, and a professor of education at the University of Southern California, Montclair State University, and American University. In 2016, Lauren founded Creed Strategies, LLC to create a community of consultants whose core mission is to use their knowledge, experience, and resources to work alongside educators and communities to ignite vibrant learning conditions where the genius of every child is invited to bloom. Dr. Wells has worked in school districts across the nation on educational equity and school transformation.
Dr. Wells received a BA in English from Temple University, an MA in Educational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, and Ph.D. in Educational Policy from the University of California Los Angeles.