Dr. Arvilla Payne-Jackson is a professor of linguistics and anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. A graduate of American University, from which she received her B.A. Spanish and M.A. in linguistics, she earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in sociolinguistics.

Payne-Jackson has published articles in journals such as NAPA Bulletin, Latin American Essays, The Politics of Cultures, and Anthropological Quarterly. She has also authored the books Jamaica’s Ethnomedicine: Its Potential in Jamaica’s Health Care System and Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit: John Lee—An African American Herbal Healer.

Payne-Jackson is a Society of Applied Anthropology fellow and a consultant for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Anti-Drug Media Campaign, the Edward Maziqe Parent Child Center, and the Youth Services America. Her field work experience focuses on research and evaluation of federal and private programs in the areas of social services, drug abuse/prevention, and child abuse and neglect in communities with high-risk, low-income families; other research areas includes discourse analysis and medical anthropology in diabetic clinics in Jamaica and the United States. Dr. Payne-Jackson’s professional affiliations include the Society of Medical Anthropology, American anthropological Association, Linguistic Society of America, and the Society of Woman Geographers.