Shari LeMonnier, 58, lecturer of art, has been teaching art for more than 20 years. She has studied at Oxford, traveled around the world to places such as Germany, France and Egypt, and has even designed toys for companies like Mattel and Hasbro.

Although she has been a teacher for 20 years and a college professor for 12, it wasn’t her first career choice.

“I was certain I was going to be a genetic engineer,” LeMonnier said. “I ended up finding something in art that really connected with my personality.”

While studying as a junior at Southern Methodist University, she was unsure of what to do for her future career. She decided to take a semester abroad in Paris, France to help clarify her goals. When she returned, she knew she wanted to dedicate her life to fine art.

She has since studied at many art schools and has acquired many degrees along the way. She has a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University, a master’s degree in sculpture from the Art Institute of Chicago and a doctorate’s degree in visual art ministry from the Graduate Theological Foundation through Oxford University in London.

“Oxford was pretty amazing,” LeMonnier said. “I lived near the place where the dining room scenes in Harry Potter were filmed. It was fun to know I was eating where he once was.”

She had never considered teaching throughout her travels. She was making a living as a fine artist by selling reproductions of her work, hosting demonstrations about art and speaking for churches. She created large sculptural installations for these churches too. Along that path, however, she found out she wanted to be a teacher in a different way.

“Teaching was something that I came to in the second half of my life,” LeMonnier said. “I took a personality assessment test, and I scored very high in the teaching category. I was very surprised at that and decided that I wanted to start teaching.”

She was recognized for her talents and was asked to teach at the Gary Lighthouse Charter School. She taught math, science and history through art. For instance, when the students were learning about the Revolutionary War, she taught them figurative drawing and then they applied those skills to make a board game based off of questions from their text. She was soon asked to talk about her class at Calumet College and was hired by the school that same night.

After she had taken up a teaching position at South Suburban College, her husband, who was the mascot for the Chicago Bulls, passed away. After the loss of her husband she gave up on teaching for a while. However, Tom Roach stepped in and asked her to teach at PNW.

“She has a great educational background,” Roach said. “She is an accomplished artist, and I feel the students can take away from that.”

She did not accept the offer to teach at first, as she did not feel that the timing was right. After Roach persisted, she eventually joined the staff and has been teaching at PNW for three semesters. Throughout her experiences, one thing has driven her through it all, a passion for art.

“It’s the emotions that I can get out that can’t be expressed by words,” LeMonnier said.

She went on to say that she will continue to teach for as long as she can because she loves to see her students advance in the arts.

“It’s very satisfying to see past students, knowing that I’ve made a difference in their lives,” LeMonnier said.