Vocations VP Dawn Chism Simms, Esq. Honored by School Alumni Association
Feast of St. Augustine
The West Catholic Alumni Association presented its Bishop John McCort Award to attorney and Serra VP Dawn Chism Simms at its 101st Annual Communion Breakfast.
The West Catholic Alumni Association presented its Bishop John McCort Award to Serra Club of Philadelphia Vice President of Vocations Dawn Chism Simms, Esq. on April 21, 2024 at its 101st Annual Communion Breakfast.
Dawn was honored for her contributions to her profession, to her community, and to her Catholic faith.
The Bishop John McCort Award is presented to a person who “exemplifies Catholic values and beliefs; has contributed to West Catholic in an ethical manner; and has achieved outstanding success in a chosen field of endeavor.” Nominees do not need to be West Catholic graduates.
Dawn has been associated with the School District of Philadelphia for more than 35 years, currently serving as Senior General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, and as its sole in-house counsel handling design, construction, environmental, and facility service contracts. The multi-year capital improvement programs under her purview are valued between $500 million and $3 billion.
She is a 1973 graduate of the former West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Girls, which merged with West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys in 1989, with both schools then locating in the girls’ school building at 45th and Chestnut Streets. The name eventually changed to West Catholic Preparatory High School, which continues its Christian Brothers legacy today from West Catholic Boys and as a member of the global network of Christian Brother ministries, part of the District of Eastern North America. Graduates of the two single-sex schools, and of the merged coed school, in addition to students who attended either school or the coed school for at least one year, are now united into the West Catholic Alumni Association.
Graduating first in her West Catholic class and with distinguished honors, Dawn moved on to Villanova University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude and from its honors program (1977). She followed with law studies at the University of Pennsylvania, leading to her Juris Doctor degree in 1980. Her studies continued at Drexel University’s Goodwin College School of Technology and Professional Studies, where she earned a Certificate #1 with an overall 4.0 GPA in its Construction Management Certificate Program (2008).
She received the Benemerenti Medal, a papal award, in 2018 for leadership and service in the Philadelphia Catholic community, notably for her work on the St. Thomas More Society Board, St. Francis de Sales School Advisory Board, St. Raymond of Penafort Parish and St. Francis de Sales Parish finance councils, Martin de Porres Foundation Board of Directors, African-American Vocation Task Force, the Serra Club of Philadelphia board, and Archbishop Charles Chaput’s Archdiocesan Pastoral Council.
Also, in 2018, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office of Black Catholics awarded her the St. Martin de Porres Medal for her contributions and service on the Msgr. John T. Mitchell Scholarship Committee, which awards scholarships to African-American Catholic high school students. One year later, Archbishop Charles Chaput appointed her to the Board of Trustees and the Building and Grounds Committee of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary for a four-year term ending December 2023. The seminary board reappointed her to another four-year term ending 2027.
Dawn is a former member of the Board of Directors of The Consortium, Inc., a Philadelphia community mental health non-profit organization. She is a member of the Foundation of the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division. This ABA charitable arm awards the [late Judge] Juanita Kidd Stout tuition scholarship and the Dr. Sadie T. M. Alexander book scholarships each year to qualified African-American female law students attending law schools in the Philadelphia area.
Prior to her 30-plus years with the Philadelphia school district, Dawn practiced commercial litigation and construction litigation for more than seven years with the Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish & Kauffman law firm. She is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Real Property Section, and of the American Bar Association, Forum Committee on the Construction Industry and Public Contract Law Section.
Dawn and Norman Francis Simms have been married since 2017 and reside in Fairless Hills, Bucks County.
Sources: West Catholic Alumni Association Awards Program, 2024; West Catholic website; additional
The Bishop John McCort Award is named for the Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia and second Bishop of Altoona, Pa., who was educated by the Christian Brothers at the school associated with St. Michael’s Church, which later became La Salle College High School for Boys.
Born in 1860, John Joseph McCourt studied at La Salle College before entering Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in 1876. Ordained in 1883, Father McCort served on the seminary faculty for 16 years, was appointed pastor of Our Mother of Sorrows Church in West Philadelphia, then fiscal procurator for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, named a monsignor, served as Vicar General, and appointed auxiliary bishop in 1912. Over the years, his responsibilities covered multiple fiscal, administrative, and pastoral roles, including exercising significant leadership in the founding of the former Misericordia Hospital and West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys (1927). The latter was staffed by the Christian Brothers, who continue their presence in the successor coed West Catholic Preparatory High School.
Following less than a year as Altoona’s Co-adjutor Bishop, with the right of succession, he was appointed Bishop in 1920, where he established Catholic high schools and grew the diocese to 197 priests, 29 churches, 11 parishes, and 50 parochial schools. Pope Pius XI named him an assistant to the papal throne in October 1933. Right Reverend John J. McCourt, D.D., second Bishop of Altoona, died in 1936 and is buried in the crypt of Altoona’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, where he laid the cornerstone in May 1926.
