ASTS is deeply saddened by the untimely death of Jerita L. Payne, MSN, ACNP-BC, MMHC. She was 54 years old.
Ms. Payne was a nurse practitioner and Director of Clinical Transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She had concentrated her career in transplantation at Vanderbilt after graduating from the University in Tennessee with her BSN in 1986. In 1990, she completed her Master’s in Adult Nursing at Vanderbilt University and in 1994 completed her studies there as a nurse practitioner. In 2013 she completed a Masters of Management in Health Care at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management.
Her career as a staff nurse in the Intensive care unit began at Vanderbilt University and soon expanded to a nurse practitioner in the newly established hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplant program in 1990. Her focus throughout the years was on clinical transplantation. She was dedicated to her patients and to her colleagues and served on the UNOS Operations and Safety Committee between 2010 and 2012.
Ms. Payne authored and co-authored publications on liver transplantation as well as on the role of advanced practice nurses and spoke at conferences such as the UNOS Transplant Management Forum. In 2009 she was awarded Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In recognition of her life, Vanderbilt University Medical Center established the Jerita Payne Fellowship for Transplant Nurse Practitioners.