David Register was a master's student and debate coach for the Communication Studies department at UNT in the mid-2000s. While there, he honed in the skills necessary to excel in higher education and in debate. Now, he uses those skills as a professor at Bard College in New York.

Aside from his work teaching students public speaking, Register also spends time every week instructing inmates at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility. The facility allows incarcerated men and women to enroll in classes and pursue academic degrees during their time there, and Register helps to facilitate this.

His efforts have garnered the attention of The North Texan, a newspaper at UNT who ran a story about him in 2015. Additionally, his students made international headlines when they won against a Harvard debate team in the same year. Most recently, Register has been interviewed for a documentary going up on PBS.

College Behind Bars explores the transformative power of education through the eyes of a dozen incarcerated men and women trying to earn college degrees - and a chance at new beginnings - from one of the country's most rigorous prison education programs. Register's students get a lot of screen time in this documentary, and showcase the pedagogical process that Register oversees.

You can watch the trailer for this documentary here: https://www.pbs.org/video/trailer-college-behind-bars/?fbclid=IwAR1UKs8EX6MYl1wxocSk6qAAMB8fRAPakr81sBKdA_5aPEYGF5tnfA5ydl0