VALERIE PAYNE BIOGRAPHY

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Valerie Payne is a Peabody award-winning journalist and communications professional with more than 15 years of experience in the industry. She is currently a Video Producer at 2U, an education technology company. Valerie prepares and hosts university faculty to film video content for online courses.

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Before she worked at 2U Valerie was Cross Platform Producer at CNN producing content for the CNN networks and CNN.com. Valerie logged, wrote and edited original content for the site, and package produced for CNN and CNN International. She also supervised a team of associate producers and editors at CNN.com. She delegated assignments to them, which organized video production for the site.

She started her career at CNN, right out of college getting an entry level position as a Video Journalist. Valerie quickly progressed in her career and a couple of months later she was promoted to Editorial Assistant for the CNN Newsroom. She worked next as a Media Coordinator, when she earned a Peabody Award for her contributions to the 2008 Presidential Election coverage. Valerie later became an Associate Producer for the "Campbell Brown" show with anchor Campbell Brown and "Rick's List" with anchor Rick Sanchez. Valerie then moved into the Media Producer role. She won two more Peabody awards in this position for her work on the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill and 2011 Arab Spring coverage.

Valerie earned her master’s degree in public communications with a specialization in public relations in 2019. She graduated Cum Laude from Syracuse University with a Bachelors of Science in Broadcast Journalism and Communications and Rhetorical Studies. She had an active campus life, holding the position of Vice President of Black Communications Society where she hosted several major speaking engagements and concerts with former Essence magazine editor Susan L. Taylor, journalist Felipe Luciano, entertainer Trey Songz and singer Goapele to name a few. During her college career Valerie interned at CNN in the Special Projects Unit, Amtrak in the Public Relations Department and WTVH in Syracuse, NY. She also volunteered off-campus with school aged kids at Southwest Community Center in Syracuse, New York.

Valerie's commitment to community service has continued and she is an active member of the Communications Committee at her church, and a young adult group leader.

Currently she resides in Washington, DC. In her spare time Valerie enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She also loves to travel and wants to visit a different location each year. She enjoys reading mystery novels, trying out new restaurants, and watching "Law and Order" reruns.