THE WOMEN'S ISSUE
PAULA BROWN STAFFORD
CHAIR, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NOVAN INC. Paula was born at the old Rex Hospital when it was still on St. Mary’s Street in Raleigh. She has called Chatham County home since 1996, raising her kids, Cas, 25, and Jack, 22, here with her husband, Greg Stafford. They have an outdoor cat, Alex, who roams their Jordan Hills neighborhood off of Big Woods Road near Jordan Lake.
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CHATHAM MAGAZINE
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aula Brown Stafford says she has the essentials of a happy life – faith, love, purpose and a field of dreams. She was born and raised in Raleigh and grew up in a modest home with her parents, two older sisters and a younger brother. She excelled in school and imagined becoming a pharmacist. “But I learned chemistry was not my thing,” she says. “It was math. I live in that intersection of math and the health sciences.” She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public health from UNC-Chapel Hill and returned to her alma mater for a master’s degree in biostatistics. Paula was a senior in undergrad when she landed an internship at a small startup pharmaceutical research company; she became its 23rd employee. Paula worked her way up the corporate ladder over the next 30 years to become president of clinical development at Quintiles Transnational (now known as IQVIA). One of her proudest accomplishments was helping to bring Metformin to market. She credits the drug’s benefits in helping improve the quality of life for her diabetic grandmother, who lived to be 99 years old. Paula developed a strong work ethic at age 10 when she helped wipe down tables at her grandfather’s restaurant.
APRIL / MAY 2021
She was earning wages waiting tables. She absorbed a lifetime of lessons in hard work, service and leadership from her father, Bert Brown, who was a president of the Raleigh Civitan Club and active in supporting people with disabilities. Paula supports various nonprofits and service organizations, but her heart belongs to TLC (founded as the Tammy Lynn Center). She’s most animated when describing her hopes that Chatham County will one day have services similar to those at TLC, which has a mission “to empower individuals of all abilities to live their fullest life.” “I want to bring something to Chatham County that we don’t already have,” Paula says about cradle-to-grave services for developmentally challenged individuals. “I want to bring something I believe in.” Paula’s purposeful passion is key in turning vision into reality, according to John Gay, chief financial officer at Novan Inc. “I think that passion comes through in the way she engages her team and all the employees,” says John, who has lived in Chatham County for 20 years. “She shares her vision in a way that broadcasts the mission statement of the company. She’s always moving. She’s rarely static. She’s been a great coach for me, a great mentor.” Paula and Greg, her husband of 30 years, recently purchased 140 acres close to where Pittsboro Goldston Road meets Yellow Brick Road. Yes, Yellow Brick Road. They have no active plans for developing the property, but the possibilities include creating a camp for children with disabilities, a pasture for cows, a barn for wedding receptions and quinceañeras, or clearing the fields for soccer games. “You will see a line of trees and some green pasture behind with low trees on each side and tall pines at back,” Paula says. It is a matter-of-fact description of the land, but what she really sees is a field of dreams. – by Anna-Rhesa Versola CM