Glittery red shoes topped the tables on Metzger Lawn Wednesday at the second annual Ruby Slippers Luncheon, a Biola-organized event that celebrates female leaders on campus and commemorated National Women’s History Month.

Themed “In Her Shoes: Walking in the Footsteps of Women Around the World,” this year’s luncheon zeroed in on the perspectives of women from diverse backgrounds. A group of five international undergrads, dressed in colorful costumes from their native countries, performed a reader’s theater that told the emotional stories of oppressed women in their home countries.

Professor Donna Thoennes, keynote speaker, choked back tears as she told stories of women she met on a research trip to India. For American women, abuse toward their Indian counterparts is often “out of sight, out of mind.”

“We want to bring these women to sight, bring them to mind,” Thoennes said to the crowd, which numbered about 220.

Although Biola’s student body is mostly female, Biola’s faculty is mainly composed of men. The disparity is clear, but there are women who are rising to leadership roles.

“We need more women in leadership,” said June Hetzel, dean of Biola’s School of Education and one of the three recipients of the 2009 Ruby Slipper award.

Hetzel received the Deborah Award for Leadership and Wisdom. She played a role as a leader in the education department’s recent transition to a School of Education. Not only has she been a leader for Biola, but she has also reached out to other teachers in local schools, such as La Mirada High School and Gardenhill Elementary School, through a literacy program and tutoring in other subjects. For the past four years, Hetzel has also worked with teams of teachers in an outreach program to North Africa for intensive English teaching. She described her nomination for this award as an “encouragement to press on.”

Hetzel describes a godly woman in leadership as “a humble servant who needs to do the assignment God has given her to do.”

The Priscilla Award, given for excellence in teaching and mentoring, was awarded to senior Meleca Consultado. She is the first student to be awarded a Ruby Slipper award and describes her goal as a leader to be to “journey alongside people as they go to the Lord … to help them know that God longs for an intimate relationship with them.” Consultado said she has a heart for women. She has been an R.A. for Hart for three years and is team director for Beloved, an on-campus women’s discipleship program.

Elaine Crane, who received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Biola in May 2000, received the Esther Award for Obedience and Servanthood. She served with her husband as a missionary with the Evangelical Alliance Mission for 44 years. While in China, they spent time rebuilding churches, preaching and training church leaders. Today her granddaughter is a student at Biola.

Previous winners of the Ruby Slipper awards include former Biola first lady Anna Belle Cook, Professor Shelley Cunningham – Biola’s director of instructional development – and Tanya Walters, founder of the non-profit organization The Godparents Club.

Jonalyn Fincher, a Talbot alumna, inspired the Ruby Slippers Luncheon through her book, “Ruby Slippers,” a treatise on biblical femininity.