Dr. Sheila Parks Little is a trained animal virologist who sought a career in the pharmaceutical industry. She received her B.A. degree, with highest honors, from Denison University. She was trained by Alice S. Huang as a graduate student in the area of vesicular stomatitis virus, with postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Priscilla Schaffer in the area of herpes simplex virus genetics at Harvard University Medical School.

Little's 26-year experience at Eli Lilly and Company focused on research in the areas of development of eukaryotic vectors for production of recombinant proteins, molecular biology of NF-kappa B in global ischemia, Alzheimer's disease, hemostasis, and osteoporosis.

Little also was an adjunct Professor at the Indiana University Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana Medical School, an experience that allowed her to conduct postdoctoral and graduate student training.

After retirement, she continues to support science by volunteering locally and nationally.