Paula was appointed to the  Board of the HRB  in April 2026. A medical graduate of QUB, she trained in the specialty of public health medicine in London and subsequently held two consultant posts there prior to her return to Northern Ireland in 1986. Following a post as a Director of Public Health, she became a CEO in two of the Health Boards in N.I from 1993  to 2009.

Paula is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (UK and Ireland) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK .
She was awarded the CBE in 2003 for services to health in Northern Ireland.

In addition to the HRB  Paula is also a member of the Board of the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority) since 2021 and is currently serving a second term.

Paula relocated to Dublin in 2012 where she developed wide governance expertise serving on a number of Boards in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. These included the HSE,  HIQA (2015-2025), and CES, the Centre for Effective Services.

Paula was the first Director General of CAWT, the cross-border peace funded Cooperation And Working Together partnership. She has served at Board level on a number of all-island bodies and in other sectors, including higher education and environmental and sustainable health and paediatric research.

Paula’s professional interests include regulation, quality and patient safety, risk assessment, healthcare systems utilisation and reconfiguration, health technology assessment and health information systems.