Many organizations looking to develop knowledge graph programs have existing taxonomy, thesaurus, and ontology structures. In this talk, we outline strategies and techniques to leverage existing vocabulary projects to jump-start knowledge graph development. As two experienced taxonomists who have become interested in knowledge graphs over the past few years we bring to bear our perspectives on using existing vocabulary structures as a basis for knowledge graph construction. Topics include building out ontological relationships, adding and leveraging Linked Data, and modeling strategies.