Patrick Francis

Director of Career Relations for Indianapolis

Patrick Francis is director of career relations for Purdue University in Indianapolis, where he leads the integration of career readiness into the student experience through industry partnerships, work-integrated learning and career-connected programming. Reporting to the senior vice provost for Indianapolis, he works across academic and administrative units to advance a campus model where career development begins on day one in Indianapolis.

Francis returned to Purdue after graduating from the College of Liberal Arts with a degree in communication and spent nearly a decade in industry focusing on university recruitment, international cultural exchange and operations management.

Francis leads initiatives that develop and expand access to opportunities for students and high-touch engagements for industry partners. He played a key role in launching Learning While Working initiative and growing the Interns for Indiana program, securing a $1.5M grant to scale paid startup internships and strengthen workforce pathways across the state of Indiana.

Prior to joining the leadership team in Indianapolis, Francis worked on various projects including leading implementation and launch of the Lilly Scholars at Purdue program and led a team to scale the highest attended co-op and internship career fair week in West Lafayette for three consecutive years. Additionally, he launched the inaugural co-op/internship fair for Purdue University in Indianapolis and implemented the first-year professional development seminars in Engineering, Science and Polytechnic Institute for Indianapolis serving over 1,500 students to date.

In his current role, Francis owns the strategy and continued operationalization of the Guaranteed Work Experience Program in close collaboration with the Indianapolis Career Council. The Council serves as a cross-function, student-facing steering group building coordinated programming with a focus on executing classroom to career connections. His work reflects Purdue’s broader commitment to hands-on learning, students gaining real-world experience, building relationships with industry and supporting their skill development to become future leaders beyond Purdue.

Outside of his day-to-day work at Purdue, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Cooperative Education & Internship Association and is the Editor of Experience Magazine™. In 2025, Francis was recognized as the CEIA Rising Star Award as an early contributor since joining Purdue in 2022.