Associate Story

Supporting nearly 40 years of innovation

Donna Purner has spent nearly four decades helping Gore grow in Cecil County

Donna Purner has spent most of her career at Gore, and much of that time right in Cecil County. She first joined the company in the early 1980s and returned in 1995 after a short time away. Nearly 40 years later, she still looks forward to coming to work each day.

Today, Donna works in the Footwear Quality Lab in one of Gore’s Elkton, Maryland, facilities. Her role focuses on testing footwear products for brands that use GORE-TEX® technology. Before products can carry the GORE-TEX® label, they go through a series of quality and performance tests to ensure they meet Gore’s standards.

Associate Voices - GORE-TEX (R) Footwear

“I wake up excited to come to work because there’s so many new innovations happening, and the people here are amazing to work with,” Donna said.

Over the years, Donna has watched Gore grow from a company manufacturing electronic cables into one supporting industries that range from clean energy to medical technology. She has seen firsthand how products developed in Maryland can support emergency responders, military personnel and consumers across the globe.

What has stayed consistent, Donna said, is the company’s connection to the local community. She remembers meeting the Gore family early in her career and seeing how invested they were in the people who worked there.

“They would come around and thank you for the job that you did,” she said. “That always stayed with me.”

Donna hopes younger generations in Cecil County continue to have opportunities to build long careers close to home.

“A lot of companies get big and move away, but Gore has stayed,” she said. “I hope younger generations have a chance to work for a company like Gore because they want to stay where family is.”

For Donna, Gore has been more than a workplace. It has been part of her life and her community for nearly four decades.

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