Julie McIntire Divis, a 2013 graduate of food science and technology, was named the Outstanding Recent Undergraduate Alumna of the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences during the annual college alumni awards ceremony.

Divis, of Chicago, Illinois, worked with Hillshire Brands (which later became Tyson Foods) until August 2016. Her success in that job allowed her to move to a position with a small startup called PRE-Brands, where she now has companywide responsibility over safety, quality, and regulatory.

During her time at Tyson Foods, she helped bring new funding into the food science and technology department to support research by creating opportunities for the two entities to collaborate on product testing and development.

In addition to being a liaison between Tyson Foods and the department for process validation work, Divis has also led a campus recruiting program at Virginia Tech. Since she became employed with Tyson, every year undergraduate and graduate students have completed summer internships with the company. Due to these connections, Tyson has also become a company that many Virginia Tech students strive to work for upon graduation. 

 

 

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