Dean joined the department in September 2004 having been a teacher of secondary physical education and science for over 22 years.He currently lectures on the PE and School Sport degree as module leader for the Level 6 practical teaching and also teaches on the Level 4 Health and Child Development/Skill Acquisition modules in addition to being a personal tutor. He was formerly Head of Department in a successful 11 – 18 secondary school. Dean was also a Senior Teacher with responsibility for Initial Teacher Training Partnerships in all subjects and an NQT Induction tutor, mentoring and assessing newly qualified teachers, again in all subject areas. He was seconded to Sefton LEA as the teacher advisor on the New Opportunities Fund PE and School Sport Initiative. He is a Member of the Association for Physical Education and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Outside of university work, athletics takes up most of Dean’s time. He is one of the top technical officials nationally and was recently appointed to the European Athletics list of International Technical Officials,helping to oversee international competitions in Europe. Dean was also one of the Chief Field Event Referees for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, the European Team Championships in 2013 and the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2011. In addition he has officiated at World and European Indoor Championships, two Commonwealth Games, the European Team Championship Finals, Paralympic World Cup and the IAAF London Diamond League and was invited to officiate in the USA. Dean has received various awards for ‘Official of the Year’ and for 'Services to Athletics' by England Athletics. He was also the Regional Performance Coach for Javelin for 12 years following on from being a keen javelin thrower himself to Northern England representation level and being a medallist at the British Universities Championships! He still coaches local developing athletes and enjoys passing on his wide experience to his undergraduate students at Edge Hill.Dean’s research has included the role of personal development planning in developing vocationality of undergraduate physical education students. He has an interest in the teaching of athletics within schools context. He also has a keen interest in health and safety issues within physical education and was a member of AfPE's Health and Safety Advisory Group. Subject Leadership and management in secondary school Physical Education departments is a further area of research interest. Dean also undertook research in the USA comparing the training and assessment of track and field officials with that in the UK and produced a report on the organisation of the field events at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona. He is currently involved in the education of new and developing officials and is part of the UK officials recruitment and retention working group and the UK Field Event Peer and Technical Officials Selectors group.