Goodwill's Lori White At General Clerk JobMeet Lori White

When Lori White was diagnosed with dystonia in 2004, she knew that she would have some limitations, but she wasn’t sure how they would affect her life. “It affects my balance, and it also causes muscle spasms and they look a little bit like seizures. I’m conscious the entire time but I don’t have any control over my body,” she says.

White remained sick and out of work for eight years due to her disability. “It was one of those things where the cure was worse than the disease and after I got off the medication, I got a lot better.” Determined to reenter the workforce, she began what turned out to be a two-year job search but kept hitting the same walls. “People didn’t want to hire me because they felt lik ‘You haven’t worked in eight years and I don’t know if you can do this job.”

At a complete loss and unable to find someone to take a chance on her, White went to a job fair where Goodwill was set up. She talked to a Goodwill employee who informed her that Goodwill helps people with disabilities find employment and recommended she seek assistance from a vocational rehabilitation program.

Upon completion of the training program she landed a job as a general clerk for Goodwill Industries of North Georgia’s contract site for the warehouse operation at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). An integral part of the team, White is coming up on her fifth year with the organization.