A passionate edupreneur, school leader, and prolific author, Dean was recently appointed lead delegate for the inaugural 2023 GSEP Colloquium on youth social entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. He is a recipient of prestigious fellowships from EE Ford, the National Endowment of the Humanities, and the Klingenstein Foundation at Columbia University. He is an exemplar of a ravenous growth mindset earning a Masters in Education from Columbia University, a Masters in Teaching from the SIT Graduate Institute, a Proactive Leadership Certification from Cornell University, and a two-time selection in Harvard Graduate School of Education programs including “Redesigning American High Schools.” To date, he has authored six books, published essays and briefs, and has appeared on over 25 expert panels and national podcasts.

His passion for developing youth leaders and building bridges of understanding between cultures has taken many forms including the founding of the Dominican Republic Orphanage project, the Center for Global Youth Leadership, and TLL Global. He service on boards and ambassadorial roles includes the Council for International Visitors, NAIS Global Ambassadorship, TABS-NABI, and delegate to St. Lucia for the World Chamber of Commerce. In his career, he has established over 50 unique international partnerships, agreements, and exchanges with schools and businesses in China, Vietnam, Korea, Dominican Republic, Spain, Serbia, Bermuda, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, and more.

Currently, Dean serves as the Executive Head of School for two historic campuses in New York City, and his career as an educational leader has included decades in boarding schools and PK3-8 day schools throughout New York, New England and the southeast. In 2014, he founded the www.teachlearnlead.net professional development edu-library and built a globally engaged audience who utilize the vast curated resources. He credits his parents with instilling in him a love for social entrepreneurialism, service, community partnerships and civic impact. In their honor, he founded the Therese A. Fusto Micro-Grants to provide philanthropic seed money to promote youth leadership development of social and community impact projects.