Dr. Misty Dawn Shields is a thoracic medical oncologist, assistant professor of clinical medicine, adjunct assistant professor of medical and molecular genetics, and associate member of experimental and developmental therapeutics at Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana University Health Physicians. The fight against lung cancer is personal. She lost her father to small cell lung cancer when she was 15 years old. After losing her father, she sought to better understand every piece of bench-to-bedside precision medicine for lung cancer. Dr. Shields trained with world-renowned translational oncologist Dr. John Minna, where her graduate studies helped to identify predictive biomarkers to pemetrexed in non-small cell lung cancer. In collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Melanie Cobb, she contributed to the discovery of NeuroD1 as a neuroendocrine subtype in small cell lung cancer. To serve at the bedside and care for patients experiencing similar afflictions to her father, Dr. Shields steadfastly pursued her medical training at UT Houston, including rotations at MD Anderson Cancer Center, internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt University, hematology/oncology fellowship at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center as chief fellow, and the FDA-AACR Oncology Educational fellowship. She joined faculty at Indiana University in August 2022 as a physician scientist with a focus in early phase trials, longitudinal liquid biopsies, and translational studies for novel therapeutics in acquired chemo-resistant SCLC as principal investigator of the Shields laboratory. Dr. Shields serves on the guideline panel for SCLC with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, local leadership board for American Lung Association, ASCO Scientific Program Committee for Lung Cancer - Non-small Cell Local-regional/Small Cell/Other Track, and as the clinical trials advocate for IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center’s End Lung Cancer Now. Dr. Shields is the founder of Small Cell SMASHERS, a patient advocacy group for small cell lung cancer in partnership with Lungevity Foundation.