An acclaimed stage director, educator, and arts leader, Vaughn currently serves as Artistic Director of Opera Maine and brings decades of experience across opera, theater, and artist training programs. 

From 1998 to 2010, Vaughn served as Stage Director and Acting Coach for the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, shaping the artistic development of emerging singers at one of the world’s leading opera institutions. From 2008 to 2020, she was Artistic Director of Opera Programs at the Manhattan School of Music, where she led a wide-ranging repertoire of productions including works by Mozart, Strauss, Weill, and contemporary American composers. 

Vaughn began her career as a performer in original Broadway productions including Company, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Seesaw. Her stage directing work spans major companies and festivals including New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Wolf Trap Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Birmingham, Lincoln Center Playwrights’ Festival, Kennedy Center, and DiVivreVoix in France. At Manhattan School of Music, she directed a wide range of operatic works including Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, and The Mother of Us All. 

In addition to her directing career, Vaughn has held faculty positions at SUNY Plattsburgh and Marymount Manhattan College and is active internationally as a master class clinician and adjudicator for leading competitions and training programs, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Richard Tucker Foundation, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Premio Spiros Argiris International Competition in Italy. She has written for Opera News and Italy’s Musical!. 

A graduate of Brevard College, where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees, Vaughn holds a B.A. in vocal performance from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in theater directing from Hunter College, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Maine. She has also studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen and dance with Martha Graham.