| The People |
JACKIE PAYNE is a Principal at the Raben Group, bringing over a decade of experience in law and public policy gained at the state, national, and international level. Clients benefit from her capacity for innovative thinking, strategic planning, and effective advocacy campaign development and implementation, as well as her wealth of knowledge on matters related to gender equality, civil rights, and social justice. Ms. Payne began her career in post-apartheid South Africa, analyzing potential conflicts between the interim constitution's protection for both gender equality and tribal rights. As a legislative aide, she addressed policy questions related to disability rights, and worked with women in rural areas to explore policy solutions related to health and economic empowerment. Upon returning to the United States, Ms. Payne accepted a position with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, providing legal aid to low-income clients on the West Side of Chicago. As a staff attorney, she worked on a range of matters, including domestic and sexual violence, public benefits, housing, and consumer protection. Motivated to address the public policy issues at the heart of many of her clients' troubles, Ms. Payne moved to D.C. to become the first policy attorney at the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. There Ms. Payne led a national coalition of community-based organizations dedicated to addressing the gendered-roots of poverty, including domestic and sexual violence, care giving, child care, and education. Ms. Payne also chaired the National Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, where she led the successful campaign to reauthorize and improve the Violence Against Women Act. During this five year period, Ms. Payne served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, teaching classes on Gender, Equality, and the Law. In 2003, Ms. Payne's legislative strategy, coalition building, and effective advocacy campaigns sparked the interest of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The nearly one billion dollar health care organization recruited her to run its 50-state advocacy program. In this role, Ms. Payne set the Federation's policy agenda and worked to enhance the capacity of its 100-plus affiliates to engage in effective advocacy. In doing so, Ms. Payne employed a number of strategies that she now uses to assist clients of the Raben Group, including on-site strategic planning, advocacy trainings, ground breaking policy conferences and retreats, and technical assistance with legislative analysis, bill drafting, lobbying, and more. Ms. Payne was promoted in 2006 to serve as the director of Planned Parenthood's Government Relations department, where she took over responsibility for the entirety of the Federation's state, federal, and international policy work. Ms. Payne represented Planned Parenthood on Capitol Hill and with the Administration, building solid relationships with members on both sides of the aisle and developing effective grassroots advocacy campaigns to defend reproductive health, rights, and justice and advance one of the most challenging issues in American politics. Before leaving Planned Parenthood, Ms. Payne orchestrated the passage of a measure to restore affordable birth control to millions of women. Ms. Payne received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School. She is a trustee of the Patsy Takemoto Mink Foundation and serves on the board of Generations Ahead.
|
|
|
