Valerie Wiener – Whip, Alumnus, Practitioner

“I should be knocking on doors,” said Valerie Wiener (BJ ’71, MA ’72).  The current minority whip in the Nevada State Senate is up for re-election after being in the Senate 12 years.  I had the privilege of interviewing this remarkable woman following the “Religion in Politics – God in the White House” forum Thursday morning in the new Reynolds Journalism Institute.

What got you interested in this particular forum?

VW:  I just completed a year of prerequisites, and I’m about to begin a two-year study in my church to become a religious science licensed practitioner.  It’s a metaphysical church like Unity or Christian Science, not Scientology… The first half of the year I’ll be at the legislature if I get re-elected, though, so I’ll do it by web-cam or telephone, which will be interesting…  So I kind of lived this story.

What do you plan to do as a practitioner?

VW:  It will help me become a better person.  I don’t know, I have to get through it first.  If I get re-elected, I still have four years of service left to my district in Las Vegas.

What have you enjoyed most about the Centennial so far?

VW:  Catching up with classmates that I haven’t seen for 37 years, reminiscing about the old days.  We actually have an event tonight – there will be 15 or 20 of us.  A lot of my classmates have done really well… Mike Wheeler of CNBC… Paul Fiddick, the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under Clinton.  Ironically, the first T.V. show I produced here as part of my masters in broadcasting, Rod Gillette was my anchor, the host on the show.  I just saw him for the first time in decades.

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