Vivian Chang receives Penn State's 2011 Alumni Achievement Award

Chang is the national accounts division manager for food safety and quality assurance with Tyson Foods, Inc. She is the technical liaison between Tyson Foods and one of the company's largest customers, Wendy's, as well as the division manager of the quality assurance departments for five Tyson Foods production locations that make products for the food service industry.

Chang works with Wendy's to assure food safety and quality compliance in Wendy's products at its more than 6,500 restaurants throughout the United States and the world. She also provides technical assistance regarding governmental regulatory issues to Wendy's.

Prior to her current position, Chang was Tyson Foods' international regional quality assurance manager. She oversaw both the quality and microbiology departments for domestic operations as well as operations in Mexico and China and co-packer operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, and Panama. Chang and her team were responsible for increasing the production yield of chicken paws resulting in approximately $1 million a week in revenue for Tyson Foods.

Chang graduated from Penn State in 2001 with a master's degree in food science with an emphasis on food safety and microbiology. She also has a bachelor's degree from the Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala. While at Penn State, Chang worked as a graduate research assistant, where she participated in and lectured for Penn State sanitation and food microbiology short courses. She presented her thesis results at the American Meat Science Association Reciprocal Meat Conference in 2001.

In 2007, Chang received the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Recent Alumna Award. In 2008, she was inducted into the college's Armsby Honor Society.

Chang lives with her husband, Andres Forero '00, in Cave Springs, Ark.