Kristen Wells, Owner
As the Founder and Owner of QUEST Substitutes, Kristen Wells leads the company’s work with school districts across Oklahoma, focusing on recruiting, supporting, and placing qualified substitute educators where they are needed most. She partners with district administrators to understand staffing challenges and develop dependable substitute solutions that help schools operate smoothly when teachers are absent. Throughout her career, Kristen has recruited and supported more than 1,800 substitute educators, helping districts maintain classroom continuity and minimize disruptions to student learning.
Kristen brings experience from both the classroom and the education staffing field. Prior to launching QUEST Substitutes, she spent five years working in substitute staffing, where she oversaw large substitute pools and supported hundreds of educators serving multiple school districts. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when quarantines created unprecedented staffing shortages in schools, Kristen led aggressive recruitment efforts to expand substitute pools and place educators quickly where they were needed most. Even with a dramatic increase in teacher absences, the district she supported maintained an average 88% substitute fill rate, helping schools remain open and continue serving students. Her efforts to recruit, train, and support substitutes during that time were recognized by that district’s school board and superintendent with a special award of appreciation.
In addition to her staffing experience, Kristen has nine years of classroom teaching experience, primarily in alternative education settings with Broken Arrow Public Schools and Owasso Public Schools. Her background as a teacher gives her a practical understanding of what schools need from substitute educators and how strong staffing support can positively impact both teachers and students.
Kristen earned her bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from Northeastern State University. Although she spent part of her youth in Oklahoma before moving to New Jersey, she returned to the state in 2006 and has remained committed to supporting Oklahoma schools and communities. Her vision for QUEST Substitutes is to serve districts of every size—large and small—while building long-term partnerships rooted in trust, professionalism, and local support.
When she is not working with QUEST Substitutes, Kristen can usually be found in a classroom or spending time with her husband, family, and dogs. She is the proud mother of five children and a son-in-law, and has a six-year-old granddaughter. Her household also includes two dogs who, as she likes to say, adopted the family rather than the other way around.
