Kay Shields serves as an Assistant Professor and Field Experience Coordinator in Howard Payne University’s Educator Preparation Program within the School of Education & Fine Arts. After spending 21 years teaching in public schools, Shields is beginning her first year as a faculty member at HPU. She brings extensive classroom experience, a strong background in literacy instruction, and a deep commitment to preparing future teachers for meaningful service in education.
Shields teaches the reading and language arts sequence, including Literacy in the Primary Grades, Literacy in the Intermediate Grades, Literacy in the Content Areas, and Language Arts Methods. She also teaches an assessment course and a senior seminar course. Her favorite classes are the elementary literacy courses because teaching reading has always been one of her greatest professional passions.
One of the aspects Shields values most about teaching at HPU is the university’s Christ-centered environment. She appreciates being able not only to live out her Christian faith openly, but also to be encouraged to integrate it into her work with students. She also values the close-knit, family atmosphere on campus and the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with the students she teaches and mentors.
Shields enjoys helping future educators understand how to teach effectively and hopes that her influence will extend beyond her own classroom. Her goal is to equip students with the knowledge, confidence, and instructional skills they need to enter schools and make a positive difference in the lives of children. She believes that strong teachers can have a lasting impact on students, families, and communities.
Her passion for teacher preparation is closely connected to the needs she sees in education today. Shields believes schools need dedicated, capable, and compassionate teachers who are prepared to meet the academic and personal needs of their students. She is especially passionate about literacy because she sees reading as the foundation for nearly every other area of learning. For her, helping future teachers become effective literacy instructors is one of the most important ways she can contribute to the profession.
Shields holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Development with an emphasis in Literacy, as well as a Bachelor of Behavioral Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with a specialization in Reading. Her academic preparation, combined with more than two decades of public-school teaching experience, gives her a strong foundation for preparing future educators.
Outside of HPU, Shields is active at First Baptist Church in Brownwood, where her husband serves as pastor. She sings in the choir, teaches a college Sunday school class, works with children on Wednesday nights, and plays handbells.
In her free time, Shields enjoys cooking and baking, reading, playing games with family and friends, spending time with her doodle, and watching television. She is also the proud mother of two young adult sons, whom she considers two of her greatest blessings.
Shields’ office is located in Newman Hall, Room 108. Through teaching, mentoring, field experience coordination, and faith, she seeks to prepare future educators to serve with skill, compassion, and purpose.
