Smiling person with long red hair wearing a white shirt against a neutral background.

Payson Cunningham

Teen Hope Network Chair

Hope Means Nevada

Payson, Chair of our Teen Hope Network, is currently a high school senior in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a strong commitment to community service, including supporting the mental health of teens and military veterans and serving the underprivileged and unhoused.

Payson is also President of the 988 Awareness Project, a nonprofit that promotes awareness of the new, abbreviated 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, with a focus on teens and military veterans. Payson regularly volunteers at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and is the President/Founder of A Sense of Place and President of the Las Vegas Student Information Hub. She is also involved in a wide range of school activities, such as her school’s Varsity Cheer Team, Shine A Light Club (feeding the unhoused), National Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society and National English Honor Society. In her free time, Payson enjoys hanging out with her family and friends, hiking, tumbling and learning about civil engineering, sustainability and urban planning/design.