Counseling and Student Affairs Staff

Clinical Experience. Dr. Payne is a licensed clinical mental health counselor (LMHC) in Indiana and an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS). She has recently moved to Kentucky for her role at WKU and plans to obtain her Kentucky LPC license within the next year. She has over ten years of clinical experience, working in various treatment settings including in-home intensive therapy, inpatient psychiatric hospital (child, adult, adolescent, geriatric acute units and residential treatment units), partial hospitalization programs, intensive outpatient program (IOP), solution-focused college counseling setting, and community mental health. She has been in private practice for the past six years, and has worked with various age groups including children, adolescents, adults, and the geriatric population using various modalities like family, individual, and group counseling. She is a Brainspotting therapist, and an EMDR therapist with a focus in her clinical practice on adjustment, acculturation stressors, and trauma with adults. 

Teaching. Dr. Payne has experience teaching in subjects related to group dynamics, counseling techniques and uses a critically engaged teaching pedagogy that values the contributions of each student’s worldview for the development and growth fostered within the learning environment. Stemming from bell hooks’ and using notions of endarkened feminism, the teaching philosophy is adaptive, creative, and grounded in cultural congruence and humility.  

Scholarship. Dr. Payne has a passion for building connection and professional development for underrepresented students in online learning environments using technology, mentorship, and culturally inclusive approaches in counselor education. Dr. Payne's research interests include cultural humility and responsiveness, humanizing research methods, understanding the externalized and internalized impact of stereotypes on professional (and personal) identity development, valuing wellness for counselors and counselor educators, restorative, and inclusive broaching of critical topics amongst diverse learners. She has been a speaker at several national and regional conferences, including ACA and ACES sessions in various presentation formats. She has also been the recipient of various research and social change awards for contributions to the community and the counseling field. She is committed to service and research within the counseling profession. 

Service. Dr. Payne is dedicated to service and currently collaborates with social justice advocates in diverse communities to provide mental health services, consultation, and outreach. Additionally, Dr. Payne is a co-curator and Immediate Past President of Tapestry: Sister Circle, which is a mentorship group designed to support, uplift, and empower African American women in an online CES program that she co-founded alongside Dr. Maranda Griffin. She is dedicated to social change and advocacy and as such, is a 2020 NBCC Doctoral Minority Fellowship recipient, awarded $20,000 in recognition and belief for her advocacy and commitment to service, scholarship, practice, and research within CES profession. She was recently awarded the2022 Chi Sigma Iota – Omega Zeta chapter’s Social Change Scholarship Award in recognition for her contributions to social change within her university and community involvement. Dr. Payne is an active member of ACA, ACES, AMCD, and NBCC-Foundation.