Representative Brain Minier, Democrat of South Burlington, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degrees in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Area Studies as well as Slavic Languages and Literatures.
In 2001 he married Kat Scollins of South Burlington in her parents’ backyard. In 2010 Kat had the good fortune of landing a job teaching Russian at the University of Vermont in the German and Russian department, and once the youngest of their two children was old enough for daycare, Brian took over as the secretary for that same department.
As the children became more self-sufficient and work more manageable, Brian began searching for ways to get more involved in his community. This progressed from coaching soccer to the South Burlington school board to the statehouse. He hopes to leave things a little better than he found them and maybe even to have some fun while doing it.