Kim Gavigan

Kim Gavigan brings 26 years of experience in dairy manufacturing to her role overseeing food safety and quality across an entire facility. She began her career in operations, warehousing, and general labor before advancing to 15 years in QA leadership. In a typical day, she checks overnight emails and operations status, meets with her QA team on concerns, reports KPIs, solves problems in a fast-paced environment, and ensures compliance with FSMA, FDA, USDA, and state requirements. She develops and implements programs under the Safe Quality Food Code and other regulations, verifies batch paperwork for compliance, and makes decisions on non-compliant product. Kim holds an associate's degree in laboratory science and certifications in hazard analysis critical control point, safe quality food, food defense, sanitation, and pasteurization. She is currently working on Six Sigma certification for quality management systems. She credits a mentor, Darcy Garrity, with teaching her the importance of learning every position and caring for team members. Her approach to change emphasizes learning from floor workers to ensure new processes remain efficient and safe, advice she extends to young professionals by encouraging them to seize learning opportunities and pursue certifications.