he learned how to ski (earning a bronze medal in the USAFE cross country races), developed a love for travel and learned how to listen to patients, examine and treat them. In 1985, she left Germany to become the first woman Orthopaedic Surgery resident at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center, Lackland AFB, TX. This was her introduction to San Antonio. She made good friends and returned repeated throughout the following years to visit. After Wilford Hall, she was stationed at Kirkland AFB, NM as a general orthopaedic surgeon. She then completed a foot and ankle orthopaedic fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin from 1991-1992. After completing the fellowship, she returned to Kirkland AFB as Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery. Finishing her AF career in 1994 as a Lieutenant Colonel, she joined Advanced Orthopaedic Associates (AOA) in Wichita, Kansas in 1994 where she spent the next 24 years with a one-year hiatus to New Hampshire to care for her parents. She is and was an educator teaching and mentoring high school students, premedical students, PA students, PT students, family medicine residents and orthopaedic surgery residents. She was a full clinical professor with KU School of Medicine – Wichita. She hosted international scholars from India, Macedonia, Egypt, Bolivia and Columbia for the AAOS (American Association Orthopaedic Surgeons) She has completed over 50 volunteer medical missions to Vietnam, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and has spoken at international conferences including Bolivia, Egypt. England and Germany. She has served on the boards of the AAOS and the AOFAS (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society). She is past president of the OEF (Outreach Educational Foundation) now the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation. She likes to ski, scuba dives, travels, takes above and under water photographs, walks, plays tennis, reads, knits, plays bridge and overall enjoys life! Dr. Shields is glad to return to San Antonio and join TruOrtho as a founding partner in our “ladypod group…aka woman’s orthopaedic group”. Her philosophy is “the patient comes first”.