Director; Orlando, FL

Cristina Espino advises schools and school systems to improve financial sustainability and organizational effectiveness to increase access to high-quality educational opportunities for all children. As a bilingual, bicultural leader, Cristina has a particular passion for supporting multilingual learners and their families and communities. She takes a partnership approach to her work and focuses on building relationships and authentic collaboration with schools and community members. As a people-focused solution-seeker, Cristina also prioritizes learning and remaining adaptable and responsive throughout engagements. 

Cristina has over a decade of experience serving K-12 school leaders. Key contributions from her time at Afton, as an independent consultant, and serving the University of Notre Dame’s ACE Academies include:

• Collaborated with multiple community stakeholders and developed a grassroots marketing strategy that resulted in increased enrollment and access to funding for a network of partnership schools. 
• Created a data dashboard for a national network of dual language schools. The dashboard included enrollment, demographic, financial, academic data. Ultimately, the initiative enabled the network’s University sponsor to quickly assess the status of each school and effectively prioritize its supports. It also enabled individual schools to engage their communities through transparent information-sharing.
• Supported a state-wide not-for-profit organization by developing recommended financial standards, policies and procedures, and guidance for charter schools, including recommendations on chart of accounts and authorizer requirements.
• Conducted due diligence on three of the largest charter networks in the nation and prepared nearly a dozen Fiscal Capacity Reviews to advise on financial governance, finance and accounting capacity, fiscal health, and fiscal policies.
• Created long term financial projections for charter school strategic decision-making purposes in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Colorado.

In addition to her contributions to the K12 field, Cristina brings seven years of experience in corporate financial services. Cristina holds a BA in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago. She lives in Orlando, FL with her husband, son, and daughter.