N. Joyce Payne is a native of Washington, D.C. and relocated to Rocky Mount, N.C., following her retirement. In 1987, she founded the nationally recognized Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which has raised more than $300 million in scholarships and, leadership and capacity building support for the nation’s 47 public HBCUs. In 2008-2009, she served as Executive Director of the National Alliance for Public Trust, a new organization committed to advancing principled leadership in American institutions. She accepted this position following her retirement as Vice President, Office for the Advancement of Public Black Colleges, Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU). Before joining APLU, Payne was the president of Global Systems, Inc. and was a senior staff member with the President’s Advisory Committee for Women, President’s National Advisory Council on Women’s Education Programs, and the White House Conference on Families. She taught at the former Federal City College and at George Washington University. An authority on women’s issues in relation to higher education and labor force participation, Payne has published and presented numerous papers on the pursuit of equality for women and African Americans in higher education.

Payne received a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology from the former District of Columbia Teachers College and earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in education from the former Atlanta University. In 2016, she received the Black Enterprise Legacy Award and the Centennial Trailblazer Award sponsored by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. In 2012, she received a Heritage Award from Alcorn State University for her contributions to the School of Agriculture. She also received a Presidential Medal from Delaware State University and has received honorary doctorates from Lincoln University of Missouri, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, Kentucky State University, and University of the District of Columbia and in 2012 from Central State University. She was inducted into the District of Columbia’s Hall of Fame and the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame.

She served on the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia for nine years and served briefly as chair of the Board. She serves on the board of directors of Cultural Vistas, an international exchange organization and TMCF’s board of directors. She formerly served on the national board of AARP and chaired the AARP Foundation. She also served on the distinguished Foreign Service Performance Evaluation Boards at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Payne served as a consultant for the Andrew Young Foundation in working with the World Bank and universities in Africa to build hydroponic and aquaponics systems for sustainable agriculture. She has traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe and has conducted fact-finding missions in Singapore; China; Malaysia; Stellenbosch, South Africa; Morocco; Nairobi, Kenya, and Taiwan.