Wyoming’s New Workforce Playbook: Innovation Partnership Lays out Plan, Shifts under Business Alliance

The original story by Jess Oaks for Torrington Telegram.

Over coffee at Torrington’s Cottonwood Country Club, Lauren Schoenfield sketched out Wyoming’s answer to its talent crunch. The executive director of the Wyoming Innovation Partnership told the local Rotary on Wednesday that the state’s collaborative workforce push — born out of Gov. Mark Gordon’s post-COVID directive — is moving into a new phase and a new home.

Schoenfield, introduced by longtime member Wally Wolski and joined by guests Dr. Stephen Howard and Dr. Steve Peasling, said the Partnership has steered roughly $70 million into training pipelines that match Wyoming’s economy — energy, healthcare, ag, tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, digital infrastructure, tech, and entrepreneurship. The assignment, as she put it, was simple and sweeping: figure out what the workforce actually needs, then fund training and education that get people there faster.

Eastern Wyoming College is one of the clearest proof points. With expanded Certified Nursing Assistant and Medical Assistant tracks in Douglas and Torrington, more than 150 students enrolled and 148 finished — solid numbers in a field Schoenfield called “one of those very base level needs” where shortages persist statewide. The college has built more than 20 clinical partnerships to keep placements flowing. On the ag side, a precision agriculture program with the University of Wyoming has pulled in over 1,000 K-12 students and 25 businesses, with a mobile agronomy lab that lets kids and producers kick the tires on autonomous machines, data collection tools, and crop optimization in the field.

The broader tally is starting to add up: 1,721 post-secondary enrollments connected to WIP efforts, 39 new programs launched, 460 internships created, and 1,901 industry engagements logged. Schoenfield leaned on one point in particular — internships matter because they tether young talent to local employers.

“Internships are so important to keeping our students from Wyoming in Wyoming and connecting them with business and industry,” she said.

That work won’t stop, but the banner is changing. The Innovation Partnership is transitioning into the Wyoming Business Alliance, the statewide membership organization that advocates for employers and helps knit together public-private problem-solving. Schoenfield drew a bright line between the Alliance and the Wyoming Business Council, which some people mix up. The Council, led by CEO Josh Durrell, is a quasi-governmental arm that funnels state resources into community assets — think the Business Ready Communities grants for planning and bricks-and-mortar projects, a growing venture capital fund for founders, and regional staff who help towns move ideas from whiteboard to ribbon cutting. It can’t write checks to private firms outright — Wyoming’s constitution bars that — but it can finance the infrastructure that unlocks private growth. She pointed to Sweetwater County Airport as a recent example of how those grants translate into broader economic lift.

Schoenfield said the coordination between the Alliance and the Council is intentional: separate missions, frequent collaboration. The common goal is straightforward — build a stronger workforce for Wyoming employers — and the playbook blends homegrown partnerships with targeted federal help. That conversation will continue at the Governor’s Business Forum, Nov. 11–13 at the University of Wyoming.

After the meeting broke, Rotary members stepped outside to see Eastern Wyoming College’s mobile agronomy lab up close. Martin Winchell led the tour; Schoenfield hung back, fielding questions about how the next round of programs will land in classrooms, clinics, and shop floors across the state.