By Ben Gellman
WCHL News Reporter

In a speech Monday at UNC, Catherine Rohr, head of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), explains how her company helps convicts get ready to reenter society and get a job.

In the five years since PEP was founded, 80 percent of its participants have found a job within 30 days of being released, and less than ten percent have returned to prison. Doctor John Kasarda of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise says those are numbers that loom large in North Carolina.

A former Wall Street investor, Rohr has brought in more than 7,500 volunteers to help train convicts for the life they’ll encounter upon returning to society. Kasarda says that Rohr’s accomplishments are only part of the story that makes her such a valuable teacher.

The speech will be held at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Maurice J. Koury Auditorium at Kenan-Flagler Business School. The event is free and open to the public.