Fabi Payton was born at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California. Granddaughter of Nunzio and Concetta Tudisco and Tony and Sarah Walker. Her parents moved back to Sicily, Italy when she was 18 months old. From an early age, her constant toy giveaways showed her to be chronically altruistic. Her mother still yells “Fabiana! Always worried about everybody but herself!”

After spending 12 amazing years growing up in Sicily, life changed drastically when her father’s Navy retirement forced them to move to Bryan, TX. Now married to her high school sweetheart Justin, Fabi is mom to the beautiful and driven Naj & Ysa Payton.

She was inspired to create I Heart Bryan, by a fateful meeting with Chief Eric Buske and assistant Chiefs Darby & Swartzlander at the Bryan Police Department, in hopes that it would create something that would improve unity in her own community and communities all over the nation. Pushed by Councilman Prentiss Madison to continue forward with I Heart Bryan, she now works with many organizations including law enforcement agencies both local and global to help them come up with creative ways to build bridges of unity between the various aspects of their communities.

She is the proud daughter of Tony & Anna Walker and daughter-in-law of the late great Pastor Lonzell & Shirley Payton Jr.. A proud member of the fighting Texas Aggie class of 2017 Cum Laude graduate of Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in early education & reading. She is a 6th-grade math teacher at Sam Rayburn Intermediate in Bryan, Texas, through which she won the 2017 Rookie Teacher of the year award, Brazos Valley Alliance of Black School Educators Teacher of Excellence award, the Be Remarkable award, and 2021 Sam Rayburn Teacher of the year award. In her spare time, she is the founder and CEO of I Heart Bryan where she created Walk A Mile in My Shoes, Turkey 911, Love Your Neighbor Day, A Little Bit of Bryan History Scavenger Hunt, and Storytime at the Museum series to name a few of her public projects. She is always willing to make time to help any organization that wants and believes in bringing our community closer together.

It’s been through her faith matched by her husband’s amazing love and constant support and encouragement along with the unwavering support of her family and close friends that she has been able to accomplish what she has thus far.