New Members Join the Augustinian Advancement Council

President and CEO of Metro Philly Management, Patrick Burns, is an accomplished business leader in the real estate, food retail, food and beverage, and hospitality industries with over 30 years of experience building a series of retail supermarkets and shopping centers, managing food service for upscale restaurants and catering facilities, and operating hotel establishments throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. His most notable accomplishments include the development and operation of supermarkets in underserved areas in and around Philadelphia, including the first “Fresh Grocer” concept store in 2001. In 2005, he opened The Fresh Grocer at 56th and Chestnut Street, which then was the largest supermarket in West Philadelphia. In 2009, Patrick eradicated Philadelphia’s two largest food deserts with the development of two new Fresh Grocer supermarkets at the Shoppes at La Salle on Chew Avenue and in the historic Progress Plaza Shopping Center on North Broad Street.

Fr. Paul has had a taste of almost all that the Augustinian smorgasbord has to offer: secondary education, higher education, missionary work, board representation and currently parish life (St. Paul Parish in South Philadelphia). He has found each one rewarding. As a result of a heart transplant in 2019, he also visits transplant patients at the University of Pennsylvania once a week. He has a YouTube channel that has a weekly episode on the Sunday Scriptures (Catholic Sunday Scriptures in Context) and in his free time he bakes his world-famous biscotti (just ask his parishioners). On December 18, 2022, he celebrated his 40th anniversary of ordination and with the new heart, he expects to go another 35.

Fr. Lee professed his solemn vows in 1979 and was ordained a priest in 1980. Since then, his assignments were at St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery (1980-1983), where he taught at Villanova University and pursued part-time studies. He then pursued his doctoral studies in Systematic Theology at the Catholic University, Washington, D.C., successfully defending his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Theology in 1992. In 1991, he returned to St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery and resumed teaching at Villanova University, where he continues today as an assistant teaching professor in the humanities department. Fr. Lee serves as a long standing weekend assistant at St. Simon and Jude parish in West Chester, PA.

Colleen has always been a part of the Augustinian family: her uncle (Fr. Bill Atkinson, O.S.A.) was an Augustinian, she is an alumna of Villanova University, and her children attend Villanova University and Malvern Prep. A resident of West Chester, PA, Colleen currently serves on the boards of the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur; The Father Bill Atkinson O.S.A. Foundation; and The Love, Vaughn Foundation.