Peggy Vaughn-Payne

Peggy Vaughn-Payne has served as the Executive Director of NorthWest Initiative (NWI), a nonprofit community development organization for the past nineteen years. NWI provides a variety of resources, basic and emergency needs, and empowerment programs to our target population of low-income residents in the Lansing area. She has over 40 years of experience in the field of community and economic development previously working for the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce’s Right Place Program, Ingham County Department of Development, and the City of Lansing’s Economic Development Corporation. She also has eight years of experience in the field of education serving on a charter school board of directors, then as the board liaison officer, and finally, as a school leader from 2003-2005.

Peggy has volunteered with many organizations over the years, including being being elected in 2008 to serve on the board of directors of the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM), and served as their Treasurer. She was an active member of the Power of We Consortium (PWC) in Lansing from 2005 to 2012, and served as its co-chair for a two year term from 2009 to 2011. As a member of the PWC, she also worked with the Asset Independence Coalition, the Community & Economic Development Network, the Leadership and Practice Committee, and served as a Peer Mentor for their capacity building program. In 2013, Peggy hosted five women from South Africa and Tanzania as part of Michigan State University and the US Department of State’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Project. In September 2013, she served as an MSU Fellow, was able to travel to South Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar to visit the NGO’s of the women that she hosted and visited other women’s projects in those countries. In 2020, she was selected to serve on the Delta Township’s Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) Board of Directors and just completed serving a term as the Board President in 2023.

Ms. Vaughn-Payne attended the University of Michigan and has a BA degree in International Relations from Boston University, Boston, MA. She is the mother of four grown sons and in her spare time she enjoys traveling around the world, and spending time with family and friends.