Speaker: Patty James, Manager, Career & Internship Success - Lone Star College Cy-Fair
Topic: Building Your Talent Pipeline: A Practical Guide to Internships for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
Internship programs have long been associated with large corporations — but some of the most effective ones are run by small and mid-sized businesses who simply knew what they needed and made the ask. This session makes the case for internships as a real workforce strategy and gives business owners a clear, low-friction path to launching one. Patty James of LSC-CyFair's Opportunity Hub walks through how to structure, launch, and sustain a program that works for your business, your bandwidth, and your bottom lin
Bio:
Patty James is a workforce and community engagement strategist with more than 25 years of experience connecting people, organizations, and opportunity. As the Manager of The Opportunity Hub at Lone Star College-CyFair — a department she built from the ground up — Patty bridges the gap between higher education and the regional business community. Her background spans public affairs, customer engagement, and institutional outreach, with deep roots in the Houston area. She is the founder of the Falcon Internship Program and a driving force behind workforce pipeline development at LSC-CyFair. Patty currently chairs the CyFair Houston Chamber of Commerce's Education & Workforce Development Committee, where she works alongside K-12 leaders, employers, nonprofits, and higher education to build a stronger, more connected workforce ecosystem.