Prof. Payne is the founding Director of the Center for Cyber Operations Education at the University of North Georgia, an NSA Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. He serves as an NSA CAE Peer Mentor and Peer Reviewer, is a member of Infragard (the FBI public-private partnership for cybersecurity) and a Director of Studebaker Cyber. He is also a tenured professor of computer science at UNG, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®️) and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and holds the elite SANS|GIAC GPEN certification, among other industry certifications.