A consultant and trainer to over 110 North American independent and public schools, Kim John Payne, M.Ed, has been a school counselor, adult educator, consultant, researcher and educator for nearly thirty years, and a private family counselor for more than fifteen years. He regularly gives key note addresses at international conferences for educators, parents and therapists and runs workshops and training's around the world. In each role, Payne has been helping children, adolescents and families  explore issues such as social difficulties with siblings and classmates, attention and behavioral issues at home and school, emotional issues such as defiance, aggression, addiction and self-esteem.

Kim is the Founding Director of The Center for Social Sustainability www.socialsustain.com. A founding member of the Alliance for Childhood www.allianceforchildhood.org in Washington, DC, he has also consulted for educational associations in South Africa, Hungary,  Israel, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Payne has worked extensively with the North American and UK Waldorf educational movements and Public Schools.  He is Co Director of an extensive research program that is exploring and developing a drug-free approach to Attention Related Disorders.

He has been featured in Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Mothering and Parenting Magazines, BBC, NBC, Fox & ABC television and is a regular guest on National Public Radio.  He is the author of two books Games Children Play (Hawthorn Press) and Simplicity Parenting (Ballantine Books/Random House) and is presently working on a new book The Soul of Discipline.

Kim strives to deepen understanding and give practical tools for life that arise out of the burning social issues of our time.