Michael Payne is an advocacy professional with extensive experience designing and executing multifaceted campaigns, building and mobilizing coalitions, and strategically growing advocacy programs for small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations. He has a proven track record of translating complex scientific, medical, legal, and policy issues into actionable advocacy strategies.
His career began in international relations, including work with nongovernmental organizations in Egypt following the 2011 Arab Spring revolution. In Washington, DC, he focused on human rights and democracy promotion in the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on the Arabian Gulf states.
Over the past seven years, Michael has expanded his focus to include major U.S. domestic policy portfolios after joining Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). His work has encompassed healthcare policy in detention settings, the COVID-19 pandemic response and health worker protections, reproductive rights, forensic science in death investigations, and emergency mental health response, among other areas. His work at PHR also included mobilizing a network of more than 5,000 healthcare professionals and managing a medical student chapter network comprising more than 90 chapters.
Michael is excited to join American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP) to support the organization’s policy goals and foster its network of dedicated health professionals.