Stephanie Payne

Stephanie Renèe Payne teaches for the Writing Program and the General Education Program. Payne holds an EdD in Educational Sustainability and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Payne holds two graduate certificates in Equity & Belonging, and in Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL). Payne is a published fiction and non-fiction writer. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Payne’s current project, Soul to Soil, is an interdisciplinary research and literary project examining how landscapes in Mississippi, Accra, and Berlin function as living archives, carrying memory, intergenerational knowledge, and practices of remembrance in the aftermath of racial and historical violence.

Payne is a mindfulness practitioner, a board-certified coach, and the author of ESP: Extreme Self-Pampering for the Soul, a mindfulness workbook, and teaches courses for Mindful USC. Payne serves as Faculty in Residence. Past positions include Faculty Senate member, Dornsife Faculty Council Executive Board member & co-chair of the Belonging Caucus.