Victoria News celebrates Women in Business by catching up with Saanich’s Victoria Pruden, executive director of Bridges for Women.
VN: Any community organizations you’re involved with you’d like to highlight?
VP: Victoria Orange Shirt Day Project, Métis Nation Greater Victoria, Victoria Native Friendship Centre
VN: If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing?
VP: No matter what it would be, I would be doing what I love. Practicing culture, holding space for people in circle, and trying to help people ease their pain. So, I guess no matter what, it would be doing meaningful work that includes Indigenous people and Indigenous communities.
VN: What have you learned as you mature that you’d like to share with a ‘younger you’?
VP: That listening to my gut, my intuition, and believing in my own ideas is so very important. As a young woman I let others make decisions for me, or sway me from what I felt was the right choice.
READ ALSO: Métis artist leaves a legacy in Victoria
VN: The one thing you’d like to do better?
VP: Manage my stress as a woman in leadership. I would like to spend more time in nature, grounding my physical body and clearing my mind. Stress management is something that I need to prioritize in my life, especially the role of the body and the power of nature in clearing our mind and emotions.
VN: Your guilty pleasure?
VP: My guilty pleasure, I think it would have to be donuts. Gourmet donuts, grocery store donuts –– I love them all.
VN: For what traits would you like to be remembered?
VP: I would like to be remembered as someone who takes risks in leadership, they sometimes work out incredibly well, they sometimes fail, but it takes courage and strength to make bold decisions. I make bold decisions, usually with a view of social justice in mind.
READ MORE: Women in Business
