Cheers to 30 Years

Dana Dorsey ’91 has known this since she was a young child: She was born to be an engineer. Growing up, she always prided herself in knowing the exact career path she wanted to follow. However, without the influence of Texas A&M University, this engineer’s journey might have never reached its full potential.

Thanks to Texas A&M’s College of Engineering, this year Dorsey will celebrate her rewarding 30-year career with 3M, including her recent year leading within the company to successfully support global pandemic needs.

Fulfilling Her Destiny

A Challenging Career

When Dorsey first started at 3M, she would have never predicted her three-decade tenure with the company. And looking back now, she would not change a thing. “Not many people can say they have been with the same company for 30 years,” she said. “Even less can say that they have spent those 30 years growing as an individual and a leader.”

She attributes her success to always being open to the next opportunity, the next challenge and the next problem to be solved—a lesson that her time at Texas A&M taught her. “I have held a wide variety of engineering roles at 3M, and each job has taught me a different lesson and helped me grow,” she said. 

One of the main reasons Dorsey has found herself at 3M for so long is the company’s culture of support and service to others. “3M has a culture that mirrors that of Texas A&M’s,” she explained. “At 3M, we believe anything is possible, and we are dedicated to creating a better, more sustainable life with science.”

3M’s culture and commitment to sustainability is best demonstrated through the company’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 crisis. Focused on innovation and improving lives, the company has a long history of producing respirators. It tripled its 2019 production levels to produce two billion N95 respirators globally last year to support increased demand caused by the pandemic.

“I have never been prouder to work for this company,” Dorsey said. “3M is continuing to help the world respond to COVID-19 at a time when the global pandemic has created unprecedented demand for critical products.”

Currently, the engineer serves as 3M’s Enterprise Execution Model Lead, in which she coaches her peers to professional success. She stepped into her new role in March 2020, and the unexpected onset of the COVID-19 crisis forced her to rely on her experience at Texas A&M and past roles at 3M to adapt to the new challenges. “Texas A&M’s emphasis on collaboration and problem-solving has helped me do my job well and excel as a woman in what is still a predominately male-dominated industry,” she shared.

A New Status Quo

The positive impact that Dorsey’s Texas A&M education has had on her engineering career inspired her to plan a gift in her living trust in hopes of supporting the next generation of Aggie women mechanical engineers. After her life, the Texas A&M Foundation will use her planned gift to fund the Dana (Jones) Dorsey ’91 Endowed Scholarship. “There is a great need for engineers, especially female engineers to support one another,” she explained. “I do not want the financial aspect of college to stand in the way of anyone becoming successful.”

Reflecting on her experience, Dorsey has found that female engineers tend to bring a different and beneficial perspective to the table. She recognizes that improving the pipeline of females interested in engineering is an important step in challenging the status quo. “Women in engineering are still the exception, not the rule,” she said, “but the engineering profession is a highly diversified field that thrives on bringing people with very different talents together.”

Dorsey clarified that—while she believes women do offer a different perspective than men in the industry—they should not be treated differently. “I don’t want others to label me and future women in this profession as ‘female engineers,’” she said. “We are simply engineers.”

While she hopes to encourage more women to pursue engineering careers, she also wants her future scholarship recipients to realize how Aggieland can impact their future.

“Texas A&M continues to play an important role in my personal and professional life,” Dorsey said. “Without the academic and personal growth the university and, more importantly, the College of Engineering provided me, I would not be where I am today.”

To learn more about supporting future Aggie engineers with a planned gift, please contact Kevin Westerman ’11 using the form below.

Download our estate planning kit