Teaching and Online Teaching Excellence - Mary Tripp, senior lecturer of communicating arts, has an unwavering commitment to student learning, and has high standards and expectations for student performance. She holds a rigorous course content, accompanied by devoted, in-depth assessment, evaluation, and feedback. She has regular and consistent course redevelopment by working every year to revise and improve her courses. She has consistently high course evaluation scores and feedback, and her miraculous ability to "read" her students has proven true time and time again. She also takes her students to Superior Days, an annual grassroots approach to community development in Northwest Wisconsin. Exposing her students to issues in need of resolution, local leadership, and regional cooperation between citizens and government leaders to solve common problems, plays an important role in enhancing UW-Superior students.

Max H. Lavine Award for Scholarly Contributions to Contemporary Concerns -  The feature film "Madison" by Brent Notbohm, associate professor of mass communication, addresses war-related post-traumatic stress disorder. "Madison" has beenfeatured at many festival screenings, including the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison; Syracuse International Film Festival in Syracuse, N. Y.; and the Big Water Film Festival in Washburn, Wis. It also has been sponsored as theatrical screenings at Sundance Cinemas in Madison,  The Gard Theatre in Spring Green, Wis., and Mineral Point Opera House in Mineral Point, Wis. "Madison" won the Jury Prize, Wisconsin's Own Competition, and at the Wisconsin Film Festival in April 2008. Notbohm's creative scholarship demonstrates the diversity of scholarly work at UW-Superior as well as its liberal arts mission.