Joan C. Payne, PhD, is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and is a professor of communication disorders at Howard University in Washington, DC, where she has been a member of the faculty for more than 40 years. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in neurogenic language disorders from an ethnobiological perspective and is the 2014 recipient of the Scholar-Mentor Award from the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing. During her tenure at Howard, Dr. Payne has published numerous articles and book chapters on sickle cell disease, traumatic brain injury, cultural competence, health disparities, caregiving, aphasia, and cultural aspects of neurogenic language disorders. She has been a visiting professor at the Universidade Tuíuti do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil, and at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. Also, Dr. Payne has received the Certificate of Recognition for Special Contributions in Multicultural Affairs and a Diversity Champion Award from ASHA.
