Alumni Spotlight: Alysha Eppard

Alysha Eppard still remembers the first time she walked into the Pacers organization as an employee. Months earlier, she had been inside a prison classroom interviewing for the opportunity that would change her life. 

Like Billie Edison before her, Alysha’s story shows what can happen when transformation meets opportunity. Her path began with addiction and incarceration. It led through years of hard work, sobriety, and education inside prison walls. 

Today, she is thriving within the Indiana Pacers organization through a groundbreaking apprenticeship program.

Early Years and a Hard Fall

Alysha’s early life moved quickly toward adulthood. She became a mother at seventeen while navigating addiction and instability. “I got pregnant when I was 17,” she said. “My daughter’s dad was on drugs… and we fell really far into addiction.”

The environment around her normalized destructive choices. Selling drugs became a way to survive and maintain independence. At twenty years old, everything collapsed. Alysha was arrested after being set up by someone she trusted.

The charges were severe. Eventually she received a 30-year Department of Correction sentence. The courtroom moment still stays with her. Watching her family react to the sentence felt devastating. “I had to see every single person that I cared about get their heart broken in the courtroom,” she said.

Prison forced Alysha to confront her life, and she focused all her attention on recovery programs helped her become sober and begin the deeper work of rebuilding herself. “I decided I was going to use this time to get everything I can out of it,” she recalled. “I was going to make sure that I did not end up back in prison,” she said.

Transformation Behind the Walls

Sobriety became the foundation of Alysha’s transformation. She committed herself fully to recovery programs inside the facility. While many participants rushed to finish and return home, Alysha took a different approach.

In a remarkable feat of dedication, Alysha attended 354 daily meetings in a row. “My mind state was, I’m not going to get to go home right after this,” she explained. “So I’m going to use this time to get everything I can out of it.” She attended meeting after meeting, sometimes speaking at every one.  

That disciplined mindset quickly expanded into Education. She rapidly earned her GED and discovered a love for problem-solving, and found she was hungry to learn more. When The Last Mile coding program arrived at Rockville Correctional Facility, a fellow student encouraged her to try it.

“I didn’t know a thinking about coding, but I felt this is something I can actually be good at,’” Alysha said.

Learning To Code With The Last Mile

Learning to code felt overwhelming at first. The concepts were unfamiliar, and the pace pushed everyone in the classroom to stretch their thinking. Over time, the structure of programming began to make sense. Each challenge became an opportunity to solve a new puzzle.

That breakthrough moment arrived the first time she completed a full project. “That first time that I finished a project, I was amazed. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I really can do this,’” she said.

The classroom quickly became a place where Alysha thrived. She enjoyed the logic and problem-solving that coding demanded. As her confidence grew, she began helping classmates work through difficult concepts and debugging problems in their code.

“I helped my peers wherever I could. It’s something that I enjoy doing,” she said.

Her instructors recognized that leadership early. After graduating from the program, Alysha returned to the classroom as a teaching assistant. For more than two years, she mentored new students and guided them through the same difficult lessons she had once struggled with.

The role deepened her understanding of the material. Teaching others forced her to think about problems from multiple angles. It also allowed her to share the confidence she had gained.

“I’ll put my all into your project if you put your all into your project,” she told her students.

By the time she left the classroom, Alysha had developed both technical skills and the ability to lead others through complex challenges—skills that would soon carry her far beyond the prison walls.

A Unique Opportunity With The Indiana Pacers

As Alysha approached a possible return to court, another opportunity began to take shape.

The Indiana Pacers organization had recently partnered with The Last Mile to explore hiring graduates from the program. Billie Edison had already helped open that door. Now Alysha had the chance to follow a similar path.

Before she even left prison, Alysha was invited by The Last Mile to interview with the Pacers while still inside the facility. “It was right before I got out,” she said. “I did my first interview with the Pacers from inside the prison.”

Suddenly, the years Alysha spent developing new skills and mentoring others could translate into a real career on the outside. That possibility soon became part of the conversation in the courtroom.