Employee Spotlight
Teresa Vaughn
Configuration Manager
Teresa Vaughn falls into things, but in a good way.
Years ago she fell into the soon-to-be burgeoning occupation of configuration management, which was a big change from her previous job working in the precious jewels division at Neiman Marcus. Configuration management is all about knowing the status of a system or a product’s performance and its functional or physical attributes, and tracking that throughout its life. She’s well-suited for the work, even if it’s a career that seemingly came out of nowhere for her.
“I got in on the ground floor of a new discipline,” she says, helping to shape what the industry would become. Her first assignment was tracking computers for the Trident and Peacekeeper Missiles, and the H-53 helicopter for the Marines. Today Teresa is the configuration manager on Catapult’s contract with the Army’s Information Technology Agency Business Application (ITA BA) Division.
She joined Catapult this summer after 12 years with Northrop Grumman working on homeland security projects in New York City.
While at Northrop, she fell into what has since become a big part of her life: the United Service Organizations (USO), the nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military. Northrop is a big supporter of the USO, and Teresa filled in on a project for someone one day, working with World War II veterans. It would be the beginning of a long-term relationship.
“They’re doing their part, and the least I can do is mine,” she says of the servicemen and women who utilize the USO. Teresa works every other Friday at the USO lounge at Washington National Airport. Of working with the USO, she says, “You feel how much people really do care.” She’s effusive in her praise and support for the troops. “I can’t get enough of them,” she says.
When she’s not working at Catapult or volunteering for the USO, Teresa is at her home near Tyson’s Corner, VA with her husband, two mini longhair dachshunds, two Senegal parrots, and her two cockatiels.
Between her recent move to Catapult, her dedication to the USO, and her expansive home life, it seems all the pieces of Teresa Vaughn’s life have fallen into place.
