An HR leader's evidence-informed argument for evaluating candidates with criminal records through the lens of rehabilitation, demonstrated competencies, and post-conviction achievement rather than background checks alone.
Her Story
About Keisha
KEISHA AUTREY: FROM SECOND CHANCE TO LEADERSHIP
Keisha Autrey’s story is not simply a story of professional success. It is a story of resilience, transformation, and the extraordinary power of believing that your life can become more than your circumstances.
After serving a lengthy prison sentence, Keisha returned to society carrying a past that could have defined her future. Her formal education had ended after the ninth grade, though she had earned her GED at just 17 years old.
But Keisha refused to let where she started determine where she would finish.
She chose education.
She chose growth.
She chose to believe that there was still more ahead of her.
Her journey began at Tulsa Community College, where she studied Human Resource Management. She graduated and continued pursuing opportunities that once may have seemed impossible. Her determination eventually led to admission to the University of Oklahoma, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 2023.
But earning a degree was never the finish line.
In Key West, Florida, Keisha began building her professional career as a Human Resources Coordinator for a hotel and marina. Her work ethic, leadership, and commitment to people earned her a promotion to Human Resources Manager.
When she returned to Oklahoma, she continued to rise professionally, becoming a Senior HR Manager and ultimately being promoted to HR Director overseeing three locations in the sports and entertainment industry.
While building her career, Keisha continued building herself.
In 2025, she graduated from law school cum laude, earning her master’s degree in Human Resource Employment Law from Trinity Law. Today, she is pursuing a PhD in Human Resource Management at Walden University.
Her journey from completing the ninth grade to graduating cum laude and pursuing a doctorate is more than an academic accomplishment.
It is a declaration:
It is never too late to become who you were capable of becoming.
Keisha has also transformed her experiences into purpose.
She is the author of Beyond the Background Check, a book that challenges society to look beyond a person’s history and recognize the person standing before them—their character, growth, potential, and capacity to contribute.
Because Keisha understands the weight of a background check personally.
She knows that a record can tell someone where you have been.
It cannot tell them where you are going.
Her commitment to people extends beyond her career. Keisha has volunteered inside women’s prisons, teaching classes in victim impact, anger management, life skills, and critical thinking. She understands the importance of reaching people while they are still trying to believe that another life is possible.
Her ultimate vision is to open transitional homes for women, creating places where women can rebuild their lives with safety, structure, education, employment opportunities, mentorship, and hope.
Keisha is a member of SHRM chapters in Key West, Florida, and Oklahoma, continuing to contribute to and grow within the human resources profession.
But perhaps the most powerful part of Keisha’s story is not what she has accomplished.
It is what she has chosen to do with what she has overcome.
She could have allowed her past to become her identity.
Instead, she turned it into fuel.
She could have allowed shame to silence her.
Instead, she found her voice.
She could have accepted the limitations others placed around her.
Instead, she pursued education, leadership, and purpose.
And she could have walked away from the people who were still struggling.
Instead, she decided to reach back and help them forward.
From completing only the ninth grade to earning a GED at 17.
From incarceration to higher education.
From starting over to becoming an HR Director.
From being judged by a record to becoming an advocate for second chances.
From earning a bachelor’s degree to graduating cum laude and pursuing a PhD.
From surviving her past to building a future designed to help others survive theirs.
Keisha Autrey is living proof that a person’s beginning does not have to determine their ending.
Her story carries a message for anyone who has ever been told that they are too far behind, too damaged, too disqualified, or too defined by their past:
Your past may explain where you have been.
It does not have the authority to decide where you go next.
Keisha is still writing her story.
And perhaps her greatest chapter will be the one where she turns around, reaches back, and holds the door open for someone else.
Because sometimes the most powerful testimony is not telling people that change is possible.
It is becoming the proof.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Keisha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to resilience, faith in my potential, education, and the decision to never let my past define my future. I learned that my circumstances could either become my limitations or my motivation. I chose motivation. Every degree, promotion, and accomplishment represents a choice to keep learning, keep growing, and keep moving forward. Most importantly, I attribute my success to understanding that my story isn’t just about what I overcame—it’s about what I can now do with what I’ve overcome to inspire and create opportunities for others.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was the advice I gave myself: never allow my past to dictate my future. I reminded myself that I was capable of learning, growing, and becoming more than my circumstances. I chose to bet on myself—and that decision changed everything.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Believe in yourself before anyone else does. Know your worth, keep learning, speak up, and never shrink yourself to fit someone else’s expectations. Your voice matters, your perspective has value, and you don’t have to have it all figured out to lead. Take up space, create your own opportunities, and never let fear decide your future.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunity in HR is recognizing potential beyond a person’s past or circumstances. My own journey taught me the power of second chances, and today I bring that perspective into HR by looking beyond a résumé or background to see the person, their potential, and what they can become. HR has the opportunity to create workplaces where people are not defined by where they started, but empowered by where they can go.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that matter most to me are faith, integrity, resilience, growth, and compassion. My life has taught me to never take an opportunity for granted, to treat people with dignity, and to remember where I came from. I believe my greatest purpose is not just to succeed, but to use what I’ve overcome to help someone else believe they can overcome too.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Keisha
Beyond the Background Check
How HR Leaders Can Build Inclusive Talent Strategies That Recognize Rehabilitation, Potential, and Second Chances Beyond Criminal Records
Beyond the Background Check: Reimagining Talent, Opportunity, and Second Chances
By Keisha Autrey
Human resource management sits at the intersection of organizational performance, employment law, and human potential. One of the most complex challenges facing HR professionals is determining how to evaluate candidates whose backgrounds include criminal convictions. Research demonstrates that criminal records can create persistent barriers to employment, while evidence regarding policies designed to reduce those barriers is mixed. (RCNi Company Limited) This article argues for a more individualized, evidence-informed approach to talent evaluation—one that maintains accountability and legitimate workplace protections while recognizing rehabilitation, demonstrated competencies, education, and post-conviction achievement. Drawing on research and my own journey from incarceration to HR leadership, I examine why organizations should look beyond a background check to understand the person, capabilities, and potential behind the record.
Keywords: human resource management, second-chance hiring, criminal records, employment, leadership, rehabilitation, talent management
The Person Behind the Record
At 40 years old, after a lengthy prison sentence, I returned to society with the GED I had earned at 17.
I had a past that could easily have become the first thing people saw when they looked at me.
Instead, I decided it would become the foundation from which I built something different.
I began my higher-education journey at Tulsa Community College, eventually earning my bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2023. I continued my education through Trinity Law, graduating cum laude in 2025 with a master's degree in Human Resource Employment Law. Today, I serve as an HR Director overseeing three locations in the sports and entertainment industry, am pursuing a PhD in Human Resource Management, and am the author of Beyond the Background Check.
My journey fundamentally shaped how I view human resources.
I understand why organizations conduct background checks. Employers have legitimate responsibilities to protect employees, customers, assets, and the organization itself. Criminal history can be relevant to particular positions and circumstances.
But I also know something from personal experience:
A background check can tell you about someone's history. It cannot, by itself, tell you their entire story.
The Evidence Behind Second Chances
Employment is an important component of successful reintegration after incarceration. Yet criminal records can create substantial employment and earnings penalties. Research by Rose (2021), for example, found that convictions were associated with decreases in employment and earnings. (RCNi Company Limited)
The policy response has often included "Ban the Box" initiatives, which generally delay when employers may ask about criminal history. However, the research on these policies is not uniformly positive. Reviews have found mixed outcomes, including evidence that some implementations may produce unintended consequences. (Annual Reviews)
That finding is important for HR professionals.
The answer cannot simply be to ignore criminal history.
Nor should the answer automatically be to exclude everyone who has one.
The more meaningful question is:
How do we evaluate the relevance of a person's history while also evaluating the evidence of who that person is today?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission encourages employers, where appropriate, to consider factors such as the nature of the offense, the time that has passed, and the relationship between the conduct and the position. It also emphasizes consistency and individualized consideration. (EEOC)
That approach resonates deeply with me.
From Screening to Understanding
HR has an opportunity to move beyond a purely transactional approach to talent acquisition.
A background check should be one piece of an employment decision—not necessarily the entirety of the decision.
- What has the candidate accomplished since the offense?
- Have they demonstrated reliability?
- Have they obtained education, certifications, or training?
- Have they established a consistent work history?
- Have they demonstrated leadership?
- What skills do they bring to the organization?
Most importantly, is the historical conduct actually relevant to the responsibilities and risks of the position?
These questions do not eliminate accountability. They introduce context.
SHRM research has found that many HR professionals and business leaders report positive experiences with employees who have criminal records, including perceptions of comparable or stronger performance, dependability, retention, and quality of hire. (SHRM)
That evidence challenges organizations to reconsider whether an individual's record should automatically overshadow demonstrated qualifications and subsequent achievement.
My Experience Changed the Way I Lead
My professional journey has made this issue personal, but it has also made me more intentional as an HR leader.
I don't believe in lowering standards.
I believe in seeing the whole person.
There is a significant difference.
When I evaluate talent, I want to understand capability, character, performance, potential, and accountability. I want to know what someone has learned and what they have done with the opportunities they have been given.
My own life is evidence that transformation can occur.
At 40, I was beginning an educational journey that would ultimately lead me to multiple degrees, professional advancement, and executive HR leadership. What changed was not my history. What changed was what I chose to do with my future.
That distinction is critical.
Organizations should not be expected to erase someone's past. But they can learn to distinguish between a history that presents a legitimate job-related concern and a history that has simply become a permanent label.
The Role of Education and Opportunity
Education became one of the most transformative forces in my life.
It gave me knowledge, but it also gave me confidence. Each academic achievement challenged an assumption I had once held about what was possible for me.
That experience reinforced something I believe HR professionals should recognize: development is not simply an organizational investment. It can be a catalyst for personal transformation.
Organizations that provide meaningful pathways for development, mentorship, training, and advancement can help employees move from opportunity to achievement.
For individuals with criminal records, those pathways can be particularly significant.
The SHRM Foundation's current second-chance employment initiative emphasizes that expanding employment opportunities for people with criminal records can help organizations access overlooked talent while supporting recruitment, retention, and advancement. (SHRM)
The opportunity, therefore, is not merely charitable.
It is strategic.
Accountability and Compassion Can Coexist
One of the most important lessons my journey has taught me is that compassion does not require the absence of accountability.
- We can hold people accountable for their decisions while recognizing their capacity for growth.
- We can protect our organizations while creating pathways for qualified people who have demonstrated meaningful change.
- We can acknowledge someone's past without refusing to see their present.
That balance is where I believe modern HR leadership has an important opportunity.
Good HR protects the organization. Great HR also recognizes human potential.
Leadership Means Reaching Back
My commitment to second chances extends beyond my professional role.
I have volunteered in women's prisons, teaching victim impact, anger management, life skills, and critical thinking. I do this because I understand what it means to sit on the other side of a decision and wonder whether your life can ever become something different.
My long-term goal is to establish transitional homes for women—spaces where women can access stability, education, employment opportunities, mentorship, and the support needed to rebuild.
My goal is not simply to tell people that transformation is possible.
I want to help create the conditions that make transformation possible.
A New Question for HR
Perhaps the question we should ask is not simply:
"What does the background check say?"
Perhaps we should also ask:
"What has this person done since then?"
That question shifts the conversation from permanent labels to evidence.
It invites us to examine growth.
It encourages us to evaluate achievement.
And it reminds us that talent management is ultimately about understanding human beings—not merely processing information about them.
My story does not mean every person with a criminal record is appropriate for every position. It does mean that people deserve to be evaluated thoughtfully, consistently, and in relation to the actual requirements of the work.
My past will always be part of my story.
But it is no longer the chapter that defines me.
Today, I lead.
I continue to learn.
I continue to serve.
And I continue to pursue opportunities that once seemed impossible.
That is why I believe deeply in the message behind Beyond the Background Check:
A background can explain where someone has been. It cannot fully determine where they are capable of going.
For HR leaders, the challenge is to see both.
- The record. And the person.
- The risk. And the potential.
- The past. And the possibility of what comes next.
That is not simply a second-chance philosophy.
It is a more complete way of understanding talent.
References
Doleac, J. L., & Hansen, B. (2020). The unintended consequences of "ban the box": Statistical discrimination and employment outcomes when criminal histories are hidden. Journal of Labor Economics, 38(2), 321–374. https://doi.org/10.1086/705880 (RCNi Company Limited)
Rose, E. K. (2021). Does banning the box help ex-offenders get jobs? Evaluating the effects of a prominent example. Journal of Labor Economics, 39(1), 79–113. https://doi.org/10.1086/708063 (RCNi Company Limited)
Raphael, S. (2021). The intended and unintended consequences of "ban the box." Annual Review of Criminology, 4, 191–207. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-061020-022137 (Annual Reviews)
Society for Human Resource Management. (n.d.). People with criminal records. SHRM Foundation. (SHRM)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Criminal records. (EEOC)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2012). Enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (EEOC)
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