But she would eventually quit her job, empty herself of all her money, and move to Texas, surrounding herself with gang leaders, murderers and drug dealers.
What changed Rohr was the shocking experience she had whilst visiting a prison in Texas.
"When I got to the prison, I saw human beings," Rohr said during an interview broadcasted at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit in South Barrington, Illinois, on Friday. "I was so inspired by their potential."
After seeing what was going on there, Rohr began flying back and forth between New York and Texas to teach business classes at the prison, but she realised it wasn't enough.
"I felt like I had to do more - to build a solution that left them with no excuse to fail after they got out," she recalled.
According to statistics, one in 15 Americans goes to prison at least once in their lifetime, and over 50 per cent of released prisoners end up right back in prison again within three years. Rohr admitted that at first she thought the problems lay within the criminals themselves.
"Then I started to realise that maybe society has to contribute to this problem," said Rohr. "These men are released from the prison with $100 ... and all they know is their old gang homeboys. And they try getting a job and at the very top of the application is the felony check box."
Rohr believes that society's attitude towards ex-convicts contributes to the problem. She realised that teaching classes on a monthly basis would only get the inmates' hopes high but could not provide practical help after they were released from the prison.
This led Rohr to establish the Prisoner Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), a one-of-a-kind programme that turns formal criminals into legitimate businessmen.
So far, the results of her programme have been astonishing. PEP graduates have a 98 per cent employment rate and a less than 5 per cent return-to-prison rate. People who have been convicted of deadly crimes are now in the business world, serving society.
