Fairfield Prep Has New Principal

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield College Preparatory School has named Timothy Dee its next principal.

Dee, formerly the school’s academic dean, will take over the new role July 1, following a national search.

For the last 20 years, Dee has been involved in Jesuit education, beginning as a student at Boston College High School and Fairfield University, and later as a teacher, coach and administrator at Fairfield Prep.

“He is a living example of how transformational Jesuit education produces talented leaders who view their lives as a vocation to serve," President Christian Cashman said in a news release from the school.

Dee plans to build on Prep's core elements of Ignatian pedagogy while embracing 21st century learning models that will enhance the student experience, according to the news release. Since his arrival at Prep in 2009, Dee has served as a math and computer science teacher, coach, leader of Christian service trips and retreats, and department chair, as well as an adjunct faculty member at Fairfield University.

In Dee's three years as chairman of the Mathematics Department, he worked to expand opportunities for students, collaborating with colleagues to start AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics and Statistics courses, as well as to create Honors Pre-Calculus with Introductory Calculus courses.

During his four years as academic dean, Dee redesigned the Prep course selection process and course catalog, collaborated with faculty members to launch a new academic schedule, and led Prep's adjustment to institute hybrid and virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the 2021-22 school year, Dee plans to introduce a new dual-credit course with Fairfield University, Film & Media Production, as well as a new Bioengineering enrichment course, which will be taught by a team of Fairfield University professors. These courses, along with the popular Entrepreneurship Institute, will be housed in Prep's newly opened McLeod Innovation Center.

"I am wholeheartedly committed to upholding and enhancing the Jesuit mission of Fairfield Prep,” Dee said in the news release. “I am prepared to lead the school alongside President Cashman to make Fairfield Prep a place where young men come to develop their intellectual competence, conscience, compassion and commitment to justice — to go forth and change the world."

After three years, Principal Tommy de Quesada will return to Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami, where he will serve as executive director of enrollment and community outreach.

Dee holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Fairfield University, a master’s degree in secondary education from Fairfield University, and an intermediate administration certification from Sacred Heart University. He is also a doctoral candidate in curriculum and instruction at Texas Tech University.

An immediate search will commence to fill the vacancy Dee's promotion has created in the office of academic dean.