Dee Simms is an attorney with thirty years of experience and currently serves as the Executive Director of Crisis Line & Safe House of Central Georgia where she has worked since 2008. The mission of Crisis Line & Safe House is to provide community crisis intervention as well as safe shelter, comprehensive support and recovery services for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and to educate the community about the cycle of violence and its prevention. In addition to her service as Executive Director of Crisis Line, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Board of Advisors for Georgia Appleseed.
A native of Albany, Georgia, Ms. Simms is a graduate of Mercer University where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree and a Masters Degree in Education. She is also a graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law, where she was a member of the Mercer Law Review and served as the Magistrar of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity.
Ms. Simms was Georgia’s first Child Advocate for the Protection of Children. She taught middle and high school prior to attending law school. As an Assistant District Attorney in the Macon Judicial Circuit, she prosecuted crimes against children until 1997 when she left the DA’s office to become the Director of Crescent House, a children’s advocacy center. In 2000 Ms. Simms returned to prosecution in the Towaliga Judicial Circuit where she was working when appointed by Governor Roy Barnes as Georgia's first Child Advocate. Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Ms. Simms to a second term as Child Advocate in January of 2004. During her tenure as Child Advocate, she received the Gail Bayes Award from the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children and the CHRIS Kids Crystal Vision Award.
After leaving the Office of the Child Advocate, Ms. Simms continued her advocacy work with Crisis Line & Safe House of Central GA. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association and the Macon Bar Association. She and her husband, Howard, have two children Grace (29) and Zack (24).
