Lives of Consequence
Kay Payne '73
Professor Emerita at Howard University
Kay Payne ’73, professor emerita at Howard University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, is internationally renowned for her unique specializations in sociolinguistics and cultural anthropology, with expertise on communication disorders including diagnosis, treatment and bilingual issues. An authority on test-taking skills and cultural diversity, she has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship twice to do research in Egypt and India, exchange fellowships in Brazil and China, a Ford Foundation Research Fellowship in Namibia, and a travel fellowship in Russia and Ukraine.
Payne’s desire to uncover truth has led to many groundbreaking innovations, including the creation of the first software program to improve the scores of minority students on the PRAXIS examinations, which evaluates individuals for entry into teacher education programs. She is the author of three best-selling books and two CD ROMs related to PRAXIS and has also developed two distance-learning courses for PRAXIS delivered via the Blackboard course management system. Many users of these materials attribute their passing scores to Payne.
Payne began teaching at Howard in 1977 as a graduate assistant, specializing in sociolinguistics and cultural diversity. In 1993, she was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and more recently received the prestigious Scholar-Mentor Award from the National Black Association for Speech, Language, and Hearing. The award is given to an outstanding professional who has been involved in the mentoring of black students in speech-language pathology, audiology and/or speech-hearing sciences through research, clinical, administrative and/or academic activities. In 2016, ASHA honored Payne, whose contributions and impact have been of such great magnitude as to alter the course of the profession.
As a black first-year student in 1969, Payne was part of the largest minority class ever admitted to Hobart and William Smith at that time. “1969 to 1973 was tumultuous; it was the height of the civil rights era and the Vietnam anti-war movement,” she recalls. “My classmates were very conscious of social causes and injustices and saw our role in changing that.”
With the help of her fellow classmates, Payne helped found what is now Sankofa: The Black Student Union, and the Black House, at the time a place on campus where minority students could live and celebrate their culture. Student activism also led to new academic offerings, including courses on black studies.
“I discovered at William Smith that women could do anything,” says Payne. “The notion that I had no limitations was instilled in me from the very beginning.”
During the Colleges’ first Multicultural Career and Networking Conference in 2016, at which she served as keynote speaker, Payne was presented with the Alumna Achievement Award, the William Smith Alumnae Association’s highest honor.
Payne earned her bachelors in psychology from William Smith and her Ph.D. from Howard University in Communication Sciences with cognate areas in sociolinguistics and special education. She recently earned her master’s degree from Howard’s School of Divinity.