Kate Payne

Kate Payne (1957 – January 6, 2021) was an American nurse, lawyer, and bioethicist. She was an associate professor at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Payne married Scott Weiss. She died at Alive Hospice from cancer in 2021, aged 63. Kate Payne Clinical Medical Ethics Legacy Fund was established in her memory at Vanderbilt University.

Payne's work was published in academic journals including Chest, Critical Care Medicine, Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Women and Birth, Journal of Graduate Medical Education, Perspectives on Medical Education, Tennessee Nurse, Pediatrics, AACN Advanced Critical Care, and The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Some of her publications are listed below to suggest the breadth of her interests and contributions, including some of her professional journal columns in 2020 about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Payne was Director of Ethics and Palliative Care at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, and a clinical bioethicist and associate professor at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University. She also held adjunct affiliation at the Center for Biomedical Ethics, Education & Research at Albany Medical College. Payne wrote and taught on healthcare law, end-of-life issues, and careworker burnout. She served on the national advisory board of Americans for Better Care of the Dying (ABCD), and was active in Tennessee End of Life Partnership and the ethics committee of the Alive Hospice. She helped to shape the Tennessee Health Care Decisions Act of 2004, and advised the state of Tennessee on pandemic planning and disaster relief. The Tennesseean named her Nurse of the Year in 2009. "Nursing is all about education, advocacy, and human dignity," she explained of her work in 2009. "I am always thinking, 'If I were a patient, what would I want?'"

Payne was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Charles (Chuck) Payne and Doris Payne. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Colorado State University in 1979, and a second bachelor's in nursing from Rush University in 1981. She completed a Juris Doctor degree at Pepperdine University School of Law in 1989. She pursued further studies in medical ethics as a fellow at the Pritzker School of Medicine in Chicago in 1993 and 1994.