Peninsula College professors Dr. Ritu Lauer and Dr. Helen Lovejoy received the 2013 John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards at the League for Innovation Conference, held March 2-5 in Anaheim, Calif.

The awards celebrate outstanding contributions and leadership by community college faculty and staff.

The recipients are selected by each individual college, based upon their ideals of faculty and staff excellence.

Lauer is an International Studies professor at Peninsula College. She came to Peninsula College upon the completion of her Ph.D. in International Relations from the Graduate School of International Studies (now Josef Korbel School of International Studies) at the University of Denver.

She also has taught previously at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. At Peninsula College she teaches in the Social Science Division and the BAS in Applied Management program and has created new curriculum in Political Economy and International Politics.

Lovejoy is an English professor at Peninsula College. Originally from Southern California, she received her B.A. from Scripps College, in Claremont, Calif., in 2001 and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Riverside.

At Peninsula College, she has taught in several Learning Communities and is a co-director of the Foothills Writers Series and Magic of Cinema. She is also the secretary for the Washington Community College Humanities Association.