Garey Payne

Community Planner and Program Manager

Garey Payne currently serves as a Community Planner for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Natural Disaster Recovery Division, at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, supporting the rebuild efforts of the installation after Hurricane Michael hit the installation in October 2018. As a retired Air Force Veteran, he has over 26 years of global experience in engineering operations, including engineering support, design, surveying, and construction management with comprehensive experience as a contracting officer's representative, including requirements definition and development, budgeting, and managing both pre- and post-award activities. Garey has skillfully managed projects and personnel around the world by leading culturally diverse, multidisciplinary teams to ensure individual and team success across the full spectrum of operations. In his current role, Garey serves as the Program Manager for the Tyndall AFB Coastal Resiliency Program, which is executing several pilot projects in the state waters around the installation. These projects include oyster reefs, saltmarsh enhancements, and living shorelines, and if proven to be successful, can be scaled up in the future up to bolster the resilience of Tyndall's 14+ miles of coastline from wave energy, erosion, and the effects of sea level rise, as well as be exportable to other coastal communities and DoD installations worldwide. Additionally, his team has developed a Coastal Resilience Implementation Plan that evaluates facility risk across the installation, caused by the combination of sea level rise with 100-yr flood events, through calendar year 2100. Implementation of this plan will help ensure the mission assurance of Tyndall AFB for generations of warfighters to come and solidify Tyndall and the premier "Installation of the Future".