Mary M. Zissimos

Mary M. Zissimos Accomplished Attorney and Public Servant

Mary M. Zissimos joined the Chester Housing Authority in 1999 to serve as the agency’s General Counsel. Charged with a massive reorganizational initiative, she is now the Deputy Executive Director, General Counsel and Secretary overseeing the Legal Affairs, Human Resources, Development and Risk Management Departments of the housing authority, as well as serving as liaison to the Receiver court for sixteen years. Ms. Zissimos now advises the Board of Commissioners.

For twelve years prior to joining the Chester Housing Authority, Ms. Zissimos was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company, now LandAmerica, and spent two years at CIGNA authoring the first terrorist exclusion for its property and casualty insurance lines. While at Temple, Ms. Zissimos clerked with the Hon. Lisa A. Richette.

Holding a Juris Doctor from the Temple University School of Law, Ms. Zissimos was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A member of the American Bar Association, the ABA Forum of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section, the Housing Development Law Institute, and the Delaware County Bar Association.

Ms. Zissimos has lectured extensively on ethics and governance and the role of public housing commissioners, employment practices, discrimination, sexual harassment, termination, and violence in the workplace.

Currently, President-Elect of the Swarthmore Rotary Chapter, Ms. Zissimos is also Chair of the Swarthmore Borough Authority, appointed to the Finance Committee of the HAI Group, Director of Hellenic University Club of Philadelphia, Member of Eastern Federation of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians of the Holy Metropolis, Past president of Daughters of Penelope, Philadelphia Chapter.

Ms. Zissimos is a first generation Greek-American, born in Brooklyn, New York. Her family subsequently moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where she was raised.