Erica Payne

About the Author

One of the most innovative strategists in the country, Erica Payne is at the forefront of an effort to build a modern progressive movement. Payne is the Founder and Principal of The Tesseract Group a boutique consulting firm that provides strategic counsel and communications expertise to major foundations, private philanthropists, and select organizations. Prior to founding Tesseract, Payne co-founded the Democracy Alliance, a donor collaborative whose partners have invested over 100 million in progressive organizations.

Prior to this, Payne served as Deputy National Finance Director for Democratic National Committee during the 1996 presidential re-election campaign and as a consultant to a number of campaigns and political organizations. In addition to her public sector work, Payne has held senior marketing positions in the private sector.

Payne has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has appeared on MSNBC and has written for the Huffington Post. She lives in New York.