Welcome to History Department!

History is the study of the past and its meaning for the present. History teaches the research and analytical reasoning skills essential in modern society. The study of history also reveals the diversity and interconnectedness of human societies through past eras and into the present.

Department Faculty: View All

  • Wayne Artis Wayne Artis Faculty/Assistant to VPES History of Western Civilization, 20th Century World (719) 502-3002 DT-S218, Box D37, Downtown Studio Wayne Artis received a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree in history from the University of Delaware, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was a career army air defense artillery officer who served in a variety of assignments in Korea, Italy, Germany and France and also served as a political-military affairs specialist. He joined the adjunct history faculty in 1992 and full-time faculty in 1996 at Pikes Peak Community College and has also served as department chair and interim dean of two instructional divisions. In 2000 his colleagues at Pikes Peak Community College elected him faculty member of the year. From 2000 to 2004 he was the faculty advisor to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and currently serves on the GE-25 Council implementing the guaranteed transfer core curriculum in higher education in Colorado. Currently at Pikes Peak he teaches the Western Civilization survey courses and a course in 20th Century World History and is Co-chair of the History Department and responsible for transfer relationships with four-year colleges and universities as well as teacher preparation. When not at work, Wayne enjoys riding Lance, a seventeen hand former race horse, walking Train, a wimp Pit Bull, gardening, reading history, and listening to opera.
  • Glenn Rohlfing Glenn Rohlfing Faculty History of Western Civilization, World History, 20th Century World, U.S. History, The Middle Ages (719) 502-3462 DT-S226, Box D37, Downtown Studio As the newest addition to the History faculty at Pikes Peak Community College, Glenn is very familiar with his new home as he graduated from PPCC. During the waning years of his military career and like so many of our students, he came back to college to pursue a degree—in History, a pursuit that has tragically left him bald. He earned an Associate of Arts Degree in History. Transferring to University of Colorado at Colorado Springs under the 60+60 program, he soon received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, graduating in 2005 as UCCS’s outstanding graduate student in History. During his time at UCCS, he studied Medieval Scandinavia, Jewish and Christian relations during the Middle Ages, Jesuit relations in the Americas and the British Raj. While he enjoys reading about and studying different historical eras, his passion is Medieval History. Glenn still has ambitions to obtain a Ph.D in either higher education or medieval studies, but he admits, "I may not have enough hair left to complete the endeavor. I am very excited to be teaching at Pikes Peak Community College because I find the students resourceful and eager to learn."
  • Carrie Spencer Carrie Spencer Faculty World History, Western Civilization (719) 502-3139 F-316, Box C16, Centennial Carrie spent her early years as an Air Force dependant and later as an Air Force wife traveling around the world and learning about varied cultures and their histories. She now enjoys teaching the World History courses here at PPCC and is especially passionate about Eastern studies. Her educational background includes a Master's Degree in History from the University of Colorado and a Master's Degree in Education also from the University of Colorado. Carrie loves the beautiful state of Colorado and enjoys hiking in the mountains and walking every morning. She is the mother of five sons...four of whom are also now in college. Carrie thoroughly enjoys her new role as an advisor to AA students and welcomes the chance to assist students in any way that she can.
  • Katherine Sturdevant Katherine Sturdevant Faculty U.S. History, History of the Pikes Peak Region, U.S. Family History and Genealogy, American Indian History, History of the American Sourthwest, Women in U.S. History, Colorado History, History of the American West. (719) 502-3146 W-119h, Box R16, Rampart Range Katherine Scott Sturdevant, Professor of History, has been the lead American history teacher at PPCC for over 20 years. She teaches all of the American specialties in the curriculum, including family, women’s, environmental, Native American, West, Southwest, Colorado, and Pikes Peak Region history. Kathy team-teaches learning communities (with COM Prof. Stephen Collins) that integrate U.S. History with Public Speaking or Group Communication. Kathy and Steve help other faculty offer learning communities too. Statewide, Kathy is the history chair for all community college faculty. She has won local, state, and national awards for teaching excellence. As a local history expert, she works with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and the Pikes Peak Library District, and gives many public presentations. She has published two books on doing family history, Bringing Your Family History to Life through Social History and Organizing and Preserving Your Heirloom Documents. She also manages two historic preservation projects: one, to restore the internationally significant 1902 Victor (CO) Miners’ Union Hall where her great-grandfather was president, and the other to restore the flood-ravaged Ira Sturdevant House, the oldest house in Waverly, Iowa, built by her husband’s great-great-great grandfather in 1855. Kathy is passionate about teaching students history and helping them reach their goals through advising.
  • Karen Wagner Karen Wagner Faculty Western Civilization, History of Islamic Civilization (719) 502-3148 F-354, Box C16, Centennial An ‘almost native’ of Colorado Springs, Karen graduated from Mitchell High School in 1976, and went on to earn a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Denver, an MA in History from UCCS, and an MA and PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto. She teaches in both the History and Humanities Departments: History of Western Civilization, History of Islamic Civilization, Humanities: Early Civilizations, Humanities: from Medieval to Modern, and World Mythology. Karen says, “I have a particular interest in intellectual and cultural history, especially in those time periods when intelligence and culture appear to have been in short supply.” When not busy separating historical truth from error, Karen knits, hikes, cooks, transcribes medieval manuscripts, and reads murder mysteries, but preferably not all at once.

Student Spotlight

Roxanne Yelvington

Learning the ropes was a difficult task, but through all the bedlam, it was the history department that pulled me through.