Christa Payne

Christa Payne is the Chief Business Officer at SoPA, responsible for finances, operations, marketing, technology  and facilities. Ms. Payne has twenty years of experience in management, operations, and development, including financial analysis and strategic consulting, non-profit management, development and communications, business development and account management, public-private partnership development, and community building and strategic planning. She is also an adjunct professor and course designer for the Business & Leadership Studies program at SoPA.

Prior to Tulane, Ms. Payne worked with Public Financial Management and the National Resource Network to help develop operational and programmatic initiatives for economically distressed cities across the country. Prior to that, she served as Vice President for External Affairs for the Public Education Foundation in Chattanooga, TN for seven years.

Ms. Payne is passionate about access to an excellent education for students and excited about the work of SoPA. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Sewanee: The University of the South and an MBA with a concentration in Strategic Management & Innovation from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business. She lives in New Orleans with her three daughters and husband, and loves all things Nola (especially Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest) but misses the Tennessee mountains.
 
What are your favorite activities when not working?
Spending quality time, preferably outdoors, with my family and friends; listening to music; running.

Without saying the category, what is your top five?
Jazz & Heritage
French Quarter
Bonnaroo
Southern Decadence
Po-Boy

What is your favorite app and why?
The Podcast app. I listen to podcasts constantly - when I run, when I drive, when I cook. I listen to everything from news and current events, to fiction, to interviews.