Dawn Pickett is currently the Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, responsible for food safety and quality for over 40 Smithfield Foods manufacturing facilities. Dawn has undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Bacteriology. She received her MBA from DePaul University. Dawn began her career at the University of Wisconsin Food Research Institute as a microbiologist. She moved to ConAgra Foods where she helped develop the first program to run a ready to eat meat production facility on a less than daily sanitation basis. In her current role, Dawn oversees all Food Safety and quality assurance activities for Smithfield Foods, including HACCP affairs, USDA regulatory issues, environmental monitoring, product pathogen issues, product quality and product foreign material concerns. She is HACCP certified, SQF certified, and PCQI certified.Outside of the office, Dawn enjoys work in the community with an emphasis on education, including assisting in elementary school classrooms and serving as a mentor and coach to youth in her community.