Roberta Payne, PhD – Retired, Consumer Member
For 19 years, Roberta Payne taught English at the University of Denver. She also published five volumes of translations from medieval Italian prose and modern Italian poetry. During the time Payne taught, she also fought clinical depression, schizophrenia, cancer, and alcoholism. She credits her superb doctors, her parents, and “indescribably wonderful friends” with enabling her to overcome these difficulties. Sober for 26 years and managing her schizophrenia with the help of state-of-the-art medications, Payne uses her experience to teach about recovery from mental illness. She lectures yearly on schizophrenia at the University of Colorado's School of Medicine. Payne retired from teaching in the spring of 2006.
Since retiring, Payne has pursued her life-long dream of creative writing. Her first short story was published in the summer edition of the Gettysburg Review, and her second story will appear in the September edition of Narrative Magazine. She is marketing three additional pieces of non-fiction and is also writing her memoir. Her most recent Italian translation will be published next year.
Payne received a bachelor's degree in Classics from Stanford University, an MA in Italian literature from Harvard, and a PhD in English from the University of Denver.
Payne has served on the Mental Health Center of Denver board since October, 2004. As a member of the board's Development Committee, she is very active in fundraising and friend-raising for the organization.