While working on her M.S. degree at Lamar University, Amy Russell (Shows) was offered a position as a graduate assistant. This experience confirmed her desire to pursue academia as a career. Shortly after completing her M.S. degree, she was hired as an instructor by the university and later became a Registered Dietitian. She enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Texas School of Public Health-Houston; her dissertation was in the area of eating disorders, specifically bulimia nervosa.

Dr. Shows has seen the need for new nutrition programs at Lamar and has been instrumental in making the dreams of specialized programs become realities. In 1995, under her leadership, LU began to offer a Dietetic Internship. She served as the Lamar University Internship Director from August, 1995 through May, 2008. Since its inception, the program has provided qualified students with learning experiences designed to help them be successful both on the registration examination for dietitians and as nutrition practitioners.

In 2007, Dr. Shows was asked to serve the university in a new capacity and became Department Chair of Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS). While she enjoyed this role for several years, her love of teaching drew Professor Shows back to the classroom and in 2011, she returned to the excitement of full-time teaching. She has taught in both traditional and online settings and at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In 2015, Dr. Shows developed the first Cardinal Community (CC) in the FCS department as well as in the College of Education and Human Development. As faculty mentor, she describes the Dietetics/Nutrition CC as a wonderful occasion to network with new dietetics and nutrition majors and to provide them the chance to interact with the nutrition faculty and also to realize the multitude of career opportunities in the field.

More recently, Dr. Shows focused her efforts on the development of an online M.S. in Nutrition which officially began in 2018. She serves as Program Coordinator of this new Master of Science degree. Dr. Shows has developed several online courses for the program including Eating Disorders; Nutrition in Aging; Sports Nutrition; Food, Culture, & Health; and Nutrition Research; she is excited about developing and teaching more courses for this degree.

Dr. Shows has numerous years of nutrition experience. She has worked in the field of community nutrition as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), providing nutrition education and counseling through home health visits, clinical trials, WIC clinics, and work rehabilitation centers. She brings her love of community nutrition to students by sharing real-life practitioner experiences. Her teaching philosophy is to “grow the student” rather than simply “grow their knowledge of nutrition” by connecting with them by utilizing a variety of teaching methods. A nurturing teaching relationship is an important part of who she is in interacting with her students. Dr. Amy Shows puts much effort into designing activities and assignments that require students to focus on nutrition as it applies to the whole person.