Virginia P. Shields

Served on the Board from 1993-2002

Virginia Collins Shields holds a record of service to her alma mater that has been, both literally and figuratively, groundbreaking. Her distinguished tenure on the Marywood University Board of Trustees endured for almost a decade—the greater part of which was spent in the challenging position of Board Chairperson. With her election to this office, she broke ground as the first Marywood alumna named to this crucial leadership post on the Board in its present structure. 

Throughout the term of her service, Mrs. Shields demonstrated, again and again, how fortunate that selection had been. Few periods in Marywood’s history have seen such sweeping changes as were brought about under her able administration.

She helped to break ground for three major new construction projects. She saw more than a half dozen other campus facilities dramatically renovated and remodeled. She was instrumental in initiating an ambitious, fund-raising campaign to assure the future of the University and its students. Then she, herself, led the way, personally contributing with extraordinary generosity to the effort.  

In both her service to her alma mater and in her personal life achievements, Virginia Shields has been—and continues to be—an inspiration. As a student, she was a campus leader. She enjoyed an outstanding professional career as a teacher, as a research analyst and as a highly successful business partner to her late husband, Paul. To her Marywood baccalaureate degree, she added graduate study at Alfred University. Her support of the arts at Marywood was recognized in 2001 in the naming of the Shields Center for Visual Arts. She has been honored by Marywood with the Presidential Medal, the Centennial Medal, and she is a member of the St. Alphonsus Society.

BOARD ACTIVITIES:

Trustee Emerita (2002)
University Advancement (1993-02)
Chair of The Board (1998-2001)