Vivian Janell

Vivian's a political assistant in her early thirties, working for Brian Jaffe. She's competent, smart and occasionally sassy. She's a cute woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes and an open face. She's good at her job, but a bit insecure; that tends to make her a little too questioning with her boss and a little too direct with others. It frazzles Brian to talk to her, but all the same, he knows he can trust her to do things right.

The daughter of an Ohio micro-brewer from the suburbs around Columbus, Vivian grew up helping her parents in the yard, doing well in school and being teased by her older brothers. She also grew up dreaming of life in the big city. A year late, at the age of 19, Vivian finally left home for school at Wesleyan where she tried majoring in Economics, History, Social Studies, Sociology, Psychology and Government before her flightiness brought her crashing into a major in Film in her Senior year. Given the circles she now works in she's a little defensive about her choice; she says Government if asked, and when called on it claims, in a huff, "I was only 6 classes short!"

After graduation, Vivian had nothing in the way of job prospects. She was too embarassed and her head too full of dreams to go home, but she was too afraid to head south to New York. She went north, instead, intending to meet some friends school in Vermont to ski and clear her head while she figured out what to do next. Unfortunately, she ran out of money in the Boston/Logan airport. That's where she first met her boss, Brian, who was on one of his infrequent trips home. He was trying to get some work done in a crowded McDonald's while waiting for his father to collect him from the airport. In the hustle and bustle of travellers and children, though, Brian was quickly losing his cool. As he crawled on the floor after some paperwork stuck to a child's foot, Vivian swooped up his mess before it drowned in a coffee spill. Not only that, but in a matter of seconds she'd managed to give some sense of organization to the pile. Brian was skeptical; Vivian was too nice and attached to him too quickly for him to be comfortable with, but she was resourceful, determined and had a degree in government from Wesleyan. Or so Brian thought. He hired her on the spot, but didn't find out about her real major until three weeks later.

• Since waking up in a Celera facility, Vivian has shown extreme (if surprising) resilience in the face of hardship. Like Brian, she seems to do this mostly by keeping herself busy with her job, but there are times when her calm facade has cracked a little and she has strongly hinted to Brian that she would like to speak to a psychiatrist about her experiences soon. In light of her competence, not to mention the need for someone to do the job, Brian has recently given Vivian more responsibility and made her Director of Human Resources at The Hopewell Foundation in addition to being his assistant.
  • During their brief jaunt to the future, Vivian went above and beyond by jumping in front of a bullet intended for Brian. Without treatment the injury would have been fatal, but on returning to the present the wound disappeared without a trace.

Job Description

Assistant to the Director of Programs/Human Resources Manager
The Assistant to the Director of Programs is the key point of contact between her Director and the outside world. She maintains her Director's schedule book and the catalod of Survivor consultants, attends some external meetings on her Director's behalf and prepares/coordinates internal meetings for her Director. She writes memos and policy briefs in all areas of interest and helps coordinate the activities of all Programs staff. She is responsible for knowing the Foundation as well as the Executive Director himself.

As Human Resources Manager, she provides initial screening of resumes and first interviews for all potential staff and manages compensation, benefits, affirmative action, employee relations, health and safety, and training/development for the entire Foundation.

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The AMERICAN GODS