Biography
Cathy Vaughan has worked for Smithfield Foods for more than 18 years, with Oklahoma operations managing 48,000 sows and nearly 1.2 million weaned pigs annually. Her experience has been in human resources (2005-2011) with Murphy Brown LLC (now Smithfield) and as safety and communications coordinator (2011-present).
She has been involved with Oklahoma Pork Council since 2013, including the board of directors (2014-2020), president (2016-2017 and 2019-2020) and vice president (current). She has served on the National Pork Board review committee for the Pork Scholars program and participated in Pork Leadership Institute. Outside of pork, Vaughan is a former board member and past president of her local Chamber of Commerce, a cheerleading coach and current member of the Oklahoma Coaches and Cheerleading Coaches Association.
Nominating Committee Comments
National Pork Board and Industry Knowledge
Vaughn has a depth of hands-on experience in production, specifically day-to-day responsibilities, training and safety measures.
Leadership, Communication, Attitude and Passion
In her career and on the board of directors, Vaughn has handled strenuous conflict management by asking questions to ensure both sides are listened to and differences can be resolved to determine the best corrective action. She is clear in her written and oral communication and spurs individuals on to further conversations when appropriate.
She is empathetic and reluctant to judge employees when doing safety-related incident reporting. For example, she quoted the five inputs she goes through in her incidents and noted sometimes it’s a policy or training challenge. This relates to her leadership style because it illustrates taking time to talk through the core of an issue rather than what’s at the surface.