[2] Payne received her PhD in linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1985, with a dissertation on the Yagua language entitled Aspects of the Grammar of Yagua: A Typological Perspective.
[3][4] After completing her dissertation, she took up an academic position at the University of Oregon, becoming a full professor there in 2002.
[2] From 1998 to 2003, Payne led an National Science Foundation-funded research project on the Maasai language.
[7][8] From 2013 to 2019, she led an National Science Foundation-funded research project aimed at documenting the Nivaclé and Pilagá languages of northern Argentina.
[9] Payne is co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of American Linguistics.