Richard Shields, PT, PhD, FAPTA, is a nationally recognized spinal cord injury researcher who has led the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine physical therapy department for the last twenty years. Under his research-driven direction, the program has consistently maintained a top five U.S. News & World Report ranking and has become the benchmark used by physical therapy departments across the nation to improve their programs. 
 
Shields came to the University of Iowa for a master's degree in physical therapy research and a doctoral degree after completing his physical therapy degree at Mayo Clinic in 1981. At the time, doctoral research in physical therapy was exceptionally rare. 
 
“I wanted to attend the University of Iowa because there were seven faculty members in physical therapy with PhDs when across the country, there were maybe 20 people total with this degree,” Shields says. “They were pushing the envelope for research and rehabilitation in physical therapy.” 

After completing his doctorate, Shields and his colleagues became some of the first to get human research in physical therapy funded by the National Institutes of Health. His clinical research on spinal cord injuries uncovered the role of skeletal muscle not only in movement, but also in endocrine function. When exercised, skeletal muscle releases myokines into the bloodstream — proteins that regulate metabolism, inflammation, and tissue adaptation. Shields’ research showed the importance of optimizing movement for all people, especially those with severe paralysis. 

Shields became the chair of the physical therapy program in 2006. Six years later, he successfully petitioned the Board of Regents to transition the program to full department status.  

Shields approached his position as chair with the research mindset he honed during his doctoral training. 

“I’ve always been driven by measurement, and I realized we didn’t have metrics for what made the student experience valuable,” he says. 

This realization led Shields to create the Physical Therapy Graduate Questionnaire (PT-GQ). The PT-GQ was adapted from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Graduate Questionnaire and started as a student survey paired with peer assessment reviews by UI physical therapy faculty and staff. When Shields published the results in 2017, five other institutions asked to participate in the next round of surveying. Now, more than 150 physical therapy programs participate each year. 

“Part of why so many institutions participate is that the data is confidential,” Shields says. “It can’t be used for rankings. It can only be used for accreditation and benchmarking.” 

Shields has published influential work based on the PT-GQ, including findings around preventing student mistreatment, tolerating ambiguity, and the economic value of a physical therapy degree. This work has elevated the profession by creating a research-based foundation for continuous improvement. 

While Shields has already accomplished much in his two decades as chair, he still has more he wants to achieve, including moving the department into the new $249 million Health Sciences Academic Building this fall. The increased lab space will allow the department to expand significantly into new research areas. 

“We're in a building that's 110 years old right now. One hundred ten years from now, our department may still be in this new building,” Shields says. “Whenever I ride off into the sunset — which I have no plans to do anytime soon — I’ll know they have a home.”