Nansemond-Suffolk Academy has announced the appointment of a new Head of Upper School.

Christopher L. Cox will replace Brenda D. Kincaid, who has worked with the academy for 33 years. She will retire at the end of June.

Cox comes to Suffolk from Englewood, Colo., where he has worked at the Kent Denver School since 2005.

“While the search committee attracted a very talented candidate pool, Mr. Cox’s independent school experience and vision clearly identified him as the ideal candidate for this position at NSA,” Head of School Colley Bell III said in a press release.

Cox, reached via telephone at a lacrosse tournament in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he had taken his current school’s team, said he is excited about the prospect of moving to Suffolk and taking the position at NSA.

“I’m pretty excited about the people that work there,” he said. There’s a lot of passion for the school. And there are some really down-to-earth kids.”

He most recently served as the Global Studies Team Leader for ninth grade and was co-developer of a global studies course and developed and taught an international relations elective course at Kent Denver School.

Cox also had several years of experience as an administrative and committee leader, a teacher mentor and college counselor.

He received many awards at the school, including the Kent Denver Excellence in Teaching Merit Award.

He holds a Master of Arts in global studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in history and English from Bucknell University. He also completed a study-abroad program at University College Dublin.

When he visited Suffolk as part of his interview process, Cox said, he concluded that Suffolk “seemed like a really great family community.”

That was an important factor in his decision, as Cox and his wife Trudy have two sons, ages 2 and 4.

Cox said NSA and Kent Denver School share some characteristics that will make him feel at home when he gets to Suffolk this summer.

“Both have committed leadership,” he said, and they “want to be the best schools in the region.”

He will begin work on July 1.