NYU Wagner Voices: Lisibeth Payano US Air Force Veteran and Women’s Rights Activist

By: Sakura Miyazaki

What did you do three days after your high school graduation?

You maybe took some time to take your mind off of school or started working a job to save up for college. However, Lisibeth Payano (MPA-HPAM 2021) decided to immediately enlist in the military, dedicating the next 13 years of her life to the United States Air Force Intelligence Agency.   

For nine of those 13 years, she was on active duty and toured the world from South Korea to Italy. When she was not on active duty, Lisibeth worked a variety of jobs, including a loss prevention detective at Macy’s; a correctional guard at an all-male, maximum-security prison; and a security guard for an Amazon Warehouse. Amidst her busy schedule, Lisibeth never had the intention to go to college as a traditional student. 

“I planned on going to school in uniform, but that didn’t go as planned,” she said. 

Lisibeth rose to the rank of an E6 Technical Sergeant, a high-profile section of the Air Force that verified the accuracy of statistical data and reported database errors and inconsistencies in mission information within a 1.2 billion dollar multi-disciplined intelligence system. She also worked as a Mortuary and Geospatial Analyst, supporting numerous high profile missions and active military operations in multiple disparate countries. But she began to shift her career path while talking to her colleagues about the benefits of attending school for business. In the spring of 2016, Lisibeth left the US Air Force to attend the Borough of Manhattan Community College and started school as a business major. However, she realized that business did not interest her and switched to a liberal arts major. Lisibeth fell in love with education and decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree at Hunter College as a German and Philosophy major.

Although she enjoyed her time at Hunter College, she discovered her passion after taking several Women and Gender Studies (WGS) classes as electives. 

“I felt connected to my college experience and I really evolved. WGS paved a new path for me,” she said.  “I realized I could excel in fighting for women’s rights.” 

Through her WGS classes, Lisibeth became involved in the women’s rights movement, participating in the Women’s March and V-Day Monologues. Her senior thesis explored infant and maternal mortality rates among African-American women, broadening her interests to health policy. Furthermore, Lisibeth’s twin sister and friends who currently work in the healthcare industry continually shared stories of high turnover rates and poor management. 

“When people run from the fire I run towards it. I really want to be involved in researching these management issues and why people are not getting proper healthcare access,” Lisibeth said.

Upon graduating from Hunter College, Lisibeth conducted research and decided to pursue NYU Wagner’s MPA degree in Health Policy and Management.  She is most excited about working with professors and gaining more experience with health research. In the future, Lisibeth hopes to work in health policy for local, city, or state government. 

“I want to work in the trenches,” Lisibeth stated. “I want to be where people are being directly affected.”