BALTIMORE — Johns Hopkins University dedicated a business center to honor slain tech CEO and Hopkins alum Pava LaPere on Saturday.
The center, FastFoward U, is a program designed to pick up where Pava left off. Its main premise is based on her company, which she started while in college. Only now has the center brandished a new moniker as the Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship.
According to Johns Hopkins University's Alumni page, Pava was the CEO of EcoMap Technologies. This company uses AI to help entrepreneurs find resources for their startups, small businesses, and nonprofits within their local community.
The name change comes on the heels of the program's fifth anniversary.
"With Pava's spirit, her passion for innovation, young people, and Baltimore in mind, I am so, so pleased to share that FastForward U will be renamed The Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship, and we will commit $2 million to its programming," said university president Ron Daniels.
On February 13, the parents of LaPere, along with several other families, testified amongst Maryland lawmakers to close a loophole in the system that allows convicted murderers to be released from jail early through diminutive credits. That bill is called the Safe Communities Act.
The bill will reduce how many credits can be earned for inmates convicted of other violent crimes and sex offenses.
Pava was murdered back in September 2023. The 26-year-old Johns Hopkins grad was found dead on the rooftop of the Congress apartments on W. Franklin Street.
Several days later, authorities arrested 32-year-old Jason Billingsley in connection with her murder. Billingsley, at the time, was working as a maintenance worker inside the building and was already on parole and probation after being released from jail in October 2022 for a 2013 sexual assault.
Billingsley was released from prison early through a system that allows inmates to earn diminution credits by participating in things like education and work.
MORE INFO: Families of murder victims testify on Safe Communities Act in Annapolis
This wasn't Billingsley's first run-in with the law. He was also linked to a rape and arson case in the same month. According to police, he allegedly broke into a home on Edmondson Avenue on September 19.
RELATED: Manhunt over: Jason Billingsley arrested at train station for Pava LaPere murder
Billingsley's next court date for the LaPere case is June 14, 2024.
In conjunction with the renaming, a fellow program also began today. The Pava LaPere Award for Cultivating Ecosystems (PLACE) fellowship seeks to develop more egalitarian, accessible ecosystems nationwide.
The fundraising goal for the PLACE Builder Fellowship is $100,000.
