Simmons Receives SMU 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award

DALLAS, TX (11/11/2011)(readMedia)-- Philanthropic community leader Annette Caldwell Simmons received Southern Methodist University's Distinguished Alumni Award on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. The award is the highest honor the University bestows upon its graduates.

Simmons has maintained a longstanding commitment to education. She earned a bachelor of science in elementary education from SMU in 1957. After graduating, she taught first and second grade at Maple Lawn Elementary School in Dallas and later at Clark Field, a U.S. air base in the Philippines. Her commitment to education culminated in 2007 with the naming of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU, following a gift from Simmons and her husband, Harold C. Simmons, to endow the school, focused on research-based reform and innovation.

Simmons is a former member of the board of SMU's Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series and has been active in several other programs on campus. She has served the community on boards of numerous organizations, including the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Parkland Foundation, Kidney Foundation and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She was honored with the Dallas Distinguished Community Service Award and Crystal Charity Ball Hall of Fame Award and has received several awards jointly with her husband.

Aside from her leadership with organized charities, Simmons contributes quietly to causes that benefit children. She has provided children's playrooms and resources for facial plastic surgery in the Pediatrics Department of Parkland Hospital, supplied funds for a mobile dental van to serve needy Dallas County children and funded an annual Christmas party with gifts for Our Children's House at Baylor Hospital.

For more information, visit smu.edu/alumni/daa.