BRATTLEBORO — Vivian J. Prunier of Westminster was recognized for her significant contributions to her community and to the Brattleboro branch of the American Association of University Women at its recent 91st annual meeting.
Prunier was cited for her leadership of the branch as membership chair and president, as well as her participation in the branch's book sale and Welcome Center fundraisers that raise money for the scholarship fund.
An involved community member, Prunier is a member of Mak'hela Jewish Chorus of Western Massachusetts and is active politically, including joining the Women's March in Montpelier in January.
As a young mother, she helped found the only Jewish day school in Northern Virginia and she continues as a lay Torah reader at her synagogue. A lover of the outdoors, she was one of the forces behind the Putney Central School After School Forest Program that introduces students to the fields and woods.
Prunier was born in New York City and raised in Pittsburgh. Her parents were both scientists who fled Germany and Austria to escape the Nazis. Prunier followed in their scientific footsteps, earning a doctorate in biology before a career at the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
She and her husband Tom are the parents of three children and two grandchildren.
One of her daughters, an associate professor in biological and environmental sciences, had this to say about her mother: “She fearlessly encouraged me to adventure, too, and to get the experiences that enabled me to become the scientist and educator I am today.”