Bryson R. Payne, Ph.D.Bryson R. Payne, Ph.D.

In addition to serving for the past three years as the Chief Information Officer at North Georgia College & State University, Dr. Payne has taught Computer Science and Information Systems courses for the University System of Georgia for the past 11 years. Dr. Payne received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia State University and holds an M.Ed. and a B.S. in Mathematics from North Georgia College & State University. During his tenure as CIO, Dr. Payne has overseen more than $120 million in new construction at the university including the 88,000 sq. ft. Library Technology Center, led significant upgrades in collaboration and workflow systems, secured an additional $1 million in classroom technology upgrades for 120 classrooms on the main campus, and implemented a university-wide help desk and IT governance program to serve over 7,000 users.

Dr. Payne is the chair-elect of the University System of Georgia’s Administrative Committee on Information Technology, the advisory committee representing CIOs and IT directors at all 35 public universities in the state. He is also an active member of the IEEE Computer Society, the ACM, SIGGRAPH -the ACM’s Special Interest Group for Graphics, the Project Management Institute, Toastmasters International, and several professional organizations. In his spare time, in addition to spending time with his 14-month-old son and beautiful wife (who is expecting their second child in February), he enjoys 3D animation, programming, investing, foreign languages (4 so far), reading and the outdoors.

For nine of the past eleven years, Dr. Payne has traveled annually to South America on 1-2 week mission trips as a translator, as well as to numerous other countries and islands in North and South America, Asia, and Europe for pleasure. He’s also served on doctoral dissertation committees at two universities and received a grant-supported five-week research fellowship in Spain, as well as giving invited lectures both in the U.S. and Europe on GPU programming based on his doctoral dissertation and related journal and conference presentations. He is a regular speaker and panelist for IT & university technology conferences and CIO events.