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John M. DeJak, an attorney and educator, is Executive Director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He practiced law and served on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army prior to being named the founding headmaster of two private high schools in the Twin Cities area. He has served in academic administration and has taught Latin, Greek, literature, government, and theology in high schools in Chicago, Cleveland, the Twin Cities, Ann Arbor, and Front Royal.
John is the co-editor of With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit (Loyola Press, 2016) and the author of many articles. A member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, he is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of St. Thomas and the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He and his bride, Annie, and their eight children live in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley.
The committee provides guidance for the educational mission of the Church in the United States in all its institutional settings. The Committee on Catholic Education guides, directs, and coordinates this task, working closely with the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis. The scope of the committee’s work includes Catholic elementary and secondary schools, Catholic colleges and universities, and college campus ministry. The committee advocates for federal public policies in education that are consistent with Catholic values and that uphold parental rights and responsibilities regarding education.
This mandate includes the following areas of responsibility:
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