Facilities Management Succession Planning – TAHFM’s First Facility Management Intern

Please welcome Briseda (Bri) Hernandez to the TAHFM family as a summer intern for 2014. Bri is an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and is pursuing a degree in architecture. In addition, she is a student in the new facility management focus area and is working towards this minor under the direction of Dr. Sarel Lavy. Bri is employed by Memorial Hermann in Houston under the supervision of Terry Scott and is working at each of Memorial Hermann’s 14 campus locations, rotating through Facilities Engineering, Operations, and Support Services for the various teams in the Houston region. In addition, Bri is actively involved with Memorial Hermann’s $ 1.5 billion expansion program and is focusing on project budgeting, peer reviews, and logistical coordination for the Katy, Sugar Land, and Texas Medical Center expansion projects. "Bri has been very active with helping our campus teams audit and prepare documentation for the upcoming survey cycle with the Joint Commission in 2015, and we have been able to use her spreadsheet and communication skills to better summarize key documentation at the campus level," says Terry.

According to Michael Hatton, System Executive, "Bri has been invaluable to Memorial Hermann this summer with her architectural and engineering experience." In addition, Hatton notes that she "is well received by all of the project expansion teams associated with our ongoing construction efforts" and "all teams actively request her presence at their project budget and peer review design meetings across the System."

Memorial Hermann was fortunate to employ one of TAMU’s summer interns, which is the first step in succession planning to support future growth. In addition, the new intern program is fully aligned with one of ASHE’s key imperatives (succession planning) for the healthcare engineering sector. Terry Scott states, "we would encourage other healthcare systems in ASHE’s Region 7 to actively pursue additional intern employment opportunities in future years as these fresh faces bring a new perspective to the traditional role of a healthcare facility manager."

Dr. Lavy notes of this internship that "the minor in facility management is a new undergraduate program offered by the Department of Construction Science at TAMU and is open to students from all majors on campus. We are fortunate to have seven students placed in various internship positions over this summer, out of which one (Bri) has been hired in the healthcare sector. For that reason, we are thankful to Memorial Hermann for taking this leadership position in our program and hope that it will encourage others to join too. The support and level of involvement from the industry will, eventually, determine how successful the facility management program is, and we are confident that we will be able to grow it with time."

Interested in pursuing a summer internship through Texas A&M University or via the ASHE program? Please contact Dr. Sarel Lavy at TAMU (slavy@arch.tamu.edu) or Dale Woodin with ASHE (dwoodin@ashe.org) for additional details on this program.

July 20, 2014 Press Release