Mead High School has a new principal, but don’t let the suit and tie fool you—Winslow Dustin Cady is a dad who spends plenty of time chasing after his two daughters. He and his wife, Mary, recently packed up their life in Colorado Springs and moved to Erie with their children, Alexis (six), and Willow (four), so that he could take on his new position at Mead.
Mr. Cady grew up in Boulder, juggling basketball, baseball, and AP classes— all while trying to keep up with the social pressure of high school.
In 8th grade, he joined Toastmasters, an international public speaking association, which turned out to be more useful than he expected. “That helped me because I have to public speak, now, as a principal,” he said. Later on in college, he rejoined Toastmasters after seeing a flyer around campus, and became the president.
Mr. Cady believes himself to be a quiet leader, explaining that “I don’t think a leader needs to be somebody who is the popular kid or who is loud and has all the right things to say all the time.”
At home, Mr. and Mrs. Cady are raising their daughters with lessons in hard work, kindness, teamwork, and being unapologetically yourself—values he picked up through sports, Toastmasters, and studying abroad in Chile and Peru. “I’m just trying to love them for who they are and support them.”
He and his wife’s love story is a school romance. They met while teaching at the same elementary school, but it didn’t stay a secret for long because students figured it out fairly quickly. With his wife’s maiden name being Lamb, Mr. Cady even admits his pickup line had something to do with the nursery rhyme ‘Mary had a little lamb.’
Although his name, Winslow, has been passed down for three generations, Mr. Cady and his wife, Mary, broke tradition when naming their kids. Instead, they created a Google Doc of baby names and picked their favorites. Their oldest, Alexis, now goes by AJ, thanks to her middle name, Jean.
Now that the family is back in Boulder County, they’re glad to be closer to Cady’s sister, who still lives in Boulder. The girls love having their aunt nearby, and Mr. Cady has his fingers crossed she’ll agree to babysit—because sometimes, even principals need backup.
