Dr. Pruden is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Associate Dean and Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech. Dr. Pruden serves as the Director of Strategic Planning for the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences Water Sustainability Thrust. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Biodegradation, and for the journal Environmental Science and Technology. She serves on an advisory panel on Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in recycled water. Dr. Pruden has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters on subjects pertaining to bioremediation, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance. She is a core faculty member in two interdisciplinary graduate education programs, Water for Health and Interfaces of Global Change. Her research program at Virginia Tech focuses on applied environmental microbiology. In relation to global change, Dr. Pruden studies the role of microbial communities in dynamic environmental systems.