MEET OUR TEAM
Dr. Laura Payne
Laura Payne is an Associate Professor of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has worked in community parks and recreation, campus recreation, association management and resort recreation. At Illinois she directed several statewide health and community development initiative including the Illinois Rural Recreation Development Project, Illinois Senior Wellness Initiative, Live Well Be Well and the Pathways to Health Project. Her work has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Human Services, National Recreation Foundation, United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. She is a highly respected researcher, writer, and presenter with numerous publications and presentations to her credit.