By Dylan Spilko

The only female principal lecturer in the cell biology and molecular genetics department at the University of Maryland is expected to retire at the end of the spring 2020 semester. 

Patricia “Patty” Shields has been a lecturer at the university since 2001. She has taught  principles of molecular & cellular biology for over 20 years to undergraduates students.

Shields teaches with a hands-on style and implements in-class activities in her lectures to help students reinforce material about cell functions, processes and structures. Shields said that everything that she does in the classroom is to help students succeed in the future because that’s what is most important to her. 

“I love students, I always learn from them and every semester is never the same thing, and that’s one of the things that I love about teaching,” Shields said. “I want to know that at the end of the day, when I’ve given all that I can that it did make a difference to these students.”

Shields utilizes a group of undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) to help teach her courses since 2009. The ULAs assist students with hands-on activities, such as making clay models of cells and parts of the cell. For senior cell biology and molecular genetics major ULA Amelia Congedo, connecting with Shields as a ULA on a more personal level has only increased her passion for learning.

“Knowing Professor Shields and working under her as a ULA has been one of the best parts of my entire college experience,” Congedo said. “Dr. Shields’ incredible, straightforward, honest and joyful personality has inspired me to remain steadfast in my passion for biology, and to never give up.”

In 2017, Shields received the Carski Foundation Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, an award that is given to a professor that shows “outstanding teaching of microbiology to undergraduate students.” The award, which is based off of nominations from other teachers in the microbiology field, gives Shields a profound sense of pride in her work to this day. 

“When you get nominated and win awards like this it means people are really paying attention and they are looking at the work that you do and they honor that,” Shields said. “It is really, really gratifying.” 

At the end of the upcoming spring semester, both Shields’ teaching career and the long-standing ULA program she brought with her will come to a close. Her colleagues at the university, especially department chair Dr. Jonathan Dinman, will always recall the impact Shields made on her students and the university. 

“She truly cares about all of her students, is available 24/7 and has genuinely put her heart and soul into ensuring that our first year students build a solid foundation upon which they can build their understanding of one of the most dynamic and important areas of the life sciences,” Dinman said. “Patty has been a tremendous friend and colleague, and her shoes will be hard to fill.”