Thomas (Tom) J. Shields, Ph.D.

Tom Shields serves as Associate Dean for Academic & Student Affairs in the School of Professional & Continuing Studies. In this role, Shields provides oversight and leadership to academic functions of the School for both adjunct faculty and students, including the Student Services team. He also serves as a resource for members of the School’s full-time faculty.

Shields brings to this role a student-centered service orientation, a focus on applied learning to program design and delivery, and experience in developing and evaluating programs.

Shields also serves as chair of the Graduate Education program, where he teaches education courses in SPCS and in the School of Arts & Sciences. He also teaches occasionally for the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

Shields joined the University in 2001 as a visiting assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and joined SPCS in 2005 as Director of the Center for Leadership in Education, a partnership between SPCS and the Jepson School.

During his tenure at the School, Shields has been instrumental in developing our graduate programs in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies along with organizing and hosting the Next Generation Leadership Academy for aspiring educational leaders in the Richmond region.

During the course of his academic career, Shields has published in various academic journals, including Educational Administration Quarterly, School Leadership & Management, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Politics and Policy, and Journal of Black Studies.

Shields has worked with local academics, practitioners, and advocates to highlight the rising segregation in education in the Richmond region. In spring 2013, he led the organization of the Looking Back, Moving Forward conference that examined the issue of equity, opportunity, race and socio-economic status in local schools.

More recently, with colleagues from the University of Richmond’s Spatial Analysis Lab and the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, he issued Confronting School and Housing Segregation in the Richmond: Can We Live and Learn Together? a report highlighting the relationship between housing and education.

As a member of the University of Richmond community, Shields has served on a number of committees including the Academic and Enrollment Management Committee of the Board of Trustees, the Provost’s Ethics Initiative Committee and the Geospatial Strategy Committee.