Greg Fairchild, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business who focuses much of his research on topics that impact overlooked populations, is the 2011 Darden recipient of the University’s Mead Endowment. Working with five Darden MBA students, Fairchild will use the endowment to initiate research on what he calls the “Prisoner Reentry Training Program.”

The U.Va. Mead Advisory Committee recognized Fairchild for his groundbreaking proposal to help jail inmates reenter society and find success in life after prison.

The inspiration for Fairchild’s Dream Idea came after Darden Dean Bob Bruner shared with him a letter he received from a prisoner seeking educational aid upon his release from Virginia’s Dillwyn Correctional Center.

Fairchild, executive director of Darden’s Tayloe Murphy Center, says his response to the inmate’s plea was a desire to answer the provocative question: After serving time in prison, is it possible to become a successful entrepreneur?

His Dream Idea research will focus on finding ways to answer that question using hard data. He knows that approximately 1 percent of the nation’s population is currently incarcerated, which costs the nation an estimated $26,000 per inmate. Lowering repeated relapse into crime, he says, would decrease these costs. Research also confirms that finding a job is a key factor in preventing former inmates from returning to a life of crime.

“Prisoner reentry and recidivism are important issues for the state and the country for a number of reasons,” says Fairchild. “The cost to the system per prisoner and the unemployment rate for re-entering inmates are huge concerns that we will address with our research,” he adds.

Fairchild says there are nearly 13,500 inmates released annually from Virginia correctional facilities. Currently, 29 percent of them return to prison within three years of being released. Prisoner recidivism is expensive for the state in operational funds and increased law enforcement; thus, lowering these costs has a community-level benefit.

Supported by funds from the Tayloe Murphy Center, five Darden Second Year students — Anders Hvelplund, Theodore Jones, Mark Lund, Christopher McCann and Semyon Shtulberg — will work with Fairchild to explore the viability of prisoner reentry entrepreneurship education.

Fairchild says, “At Darden, we believe in the case study method, and this project represents a novel opportunity to put our method to the test with a little-studied population.”

Bruner described Fairchild’s Dream Idea as a groundbreaking proposal. “Personally, I know Greg to be a man with vision,” says Bruner. “He captivates and motivates people. His work focuses on the quality of resilience, and this project is no exception.”

In 2005, a group of Darden Professor John Colley’s former students created an endowment in his name as way to celebrate and honor his extraordinary legacy as teacher and friend to students. The John Colley Endowment provides funding so that a Darden faculty member can participate in the Mead Endowment program each year and also funds the John Colley Award, which allows a faculty honoree’s Dream Idea proposal to be pursued.

For questions or information, contact communication@darden.virginia.edu or a member of the Communication team.