Fay Cobb Payton
Dr. Fay Cobb Payton is a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Division of Computer and Network Systems. At the NSF, she is working with a group of leaders on programs involving Computer Science for All, Computer Science Education, Broadening Participation and others. She is also a Full Professor (with Tenure) of Information Technology/Systems at North Carolina State University and was named a University Faculty Scholar for her leadership in turning research into solutions to society’s most pressing issues.
She was named the 2016 North Carolina Technology Association Tech Educator of the Year. She is the founder director of @myhealthimpact, a social network experience that focuses on health disparities and social media technology interventions. @MyHealthImpact provides “voice” for the millennial generation about health topics, such as sexual and mental health, and technology innovation.
She is a workshop facilitator, speaker and consultant. She received the 2017 PhD Project Hall of Fame and 2013 National Coalition of Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) Undergraduate Mentoring Awards. As an American Council on Education Fellow, she worked on issues of academic review, interdisciplinary graduate research and education, and institutional economic and community impact.
She serves as a member of the NC State University Women in Science & Engineering Advisory Committee and was a consultant evaluating STEM living and learning models across U.S. institutions.
Her research interests include healthcare IT/informatics and disparities; data management/science, social media use among the millennial and under-represented groups; intersectionality; racial, gender and ethnic identities in online communities; broadening participation in IT/computing and STEM education and workforce participation, and the influence of racial, class and gender identities on health information seeking and content creation. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference publications and book chapters. Her research has been published and/or is forthcoming in the Journal of STEM Education Research and Innovation, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Technology & People, IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, Information Systems Journal, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Health Care Management Science, Telemedicine and eHealth, just to name a few.
The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, AT&T, Kenan Institute and others have supported Dr. Payton’s research and teaching. She was a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Fellow where she worked on data management, technology and communications strategies for a health disparities study. She was awarded a SAS Institute Fellow for her work in analytics and teaching in the IS/IT classroom, and as received two NC State University Alumni Extension Awards. She is a former member of the IEEE Medical Technology Policy Committee.
She serves on several local and national boards and has been recognized in NC State and other media outlets for research and mentoring work. She has presented her research at national and international conferences and symposia in China, Nigeria, Netherlands, Canada, Greece, Ireland, UK, Ghana, just to name a few.
Dr. Payton has worked in an advisory and/or volunteer capacity with the Information Systems Doctoral Student Association, Wake County Public School Systems and the City of Raleigh. She is often the speaker or panelist for corporate career development and leadership programs, and serves as a consultant for leadership development programs for current mid-level corporate African Americans in IT careers. She has appeared on CBS Radio Network, Sunrise America, Financial Review and others to discuss tech inclusion and under-representation.
She earned a Ph.D. in Information & Decision Systems (with a specialty in Health Care Systems) from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining academe, she worked in corporate IT and consulting at IBM, Ernst & Young/Cap Gemini and Time, Inc. Dr. Payton was featured and/or cited in several media outlets (Ageism, Hidden Figures, MyHealthImpact, HealthCare IT, etc.) for her mentoring work and inclusion in the tech.