INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Education and Workforce
with their loved one. It’s easy to see a cor-
tite blond with
Today, Baker puts her experience to work
relation to absent parents and increased
a
smile,
for PEP, recruiting executives to help these
risk for prison: one-third of PEP graduates
Baker has a law
prisoners get lives that are back on track
alone grew up with at least one parent being
degree, an MBA
like hers.
incarcerated, and half of them had absent
–
fathers. Breaking the cycle of incarceration
time served. A
is a benefit to society that programs like
poor
shy
and
prison
decision
to drive herself
PEP can claim.
PEP is seeking donations of funds and also
time. The benefits to donors, and to society
at large, are substantial. Natalie Baker, executive relations manager for PEP, emphasizes
the gratitude of the population served.
home after a few drinks with friends one
night led the practicing lawyer to a car accident caused by intoxicated driving while
texting. Never having been on the wrong
side of the law before, Baker experienced
the full extent of its power and was sen-
“The people in prison do want
to better themselves, and they
are capable of doing that,” she
said. “They need a little bit of
guidance and rehabilitation.
They want to become contributing members of society.”
tenced to 10 years in a medium-security
No one knows this better than Baker, who
experienced this yearning first-hand. A pe-
46
www.ntc-dfw.org
FALL/WINTER 2015
prison. For Baker, it wa