Paula Brown Stafford, MPH

Adjunct Professor
Department of Public Health Leadership and Practice

About

Paula Brown Stafford is a biopharmaceutical executive and leadership consultant with more than 35 years of industry experience. She is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors, of Novan, Inc., a clinical development-stage biotechnology company. Prior to joining Novan, Ms. Stafford served as president of clinical development at Quintiles (now IQVIA), where she was responsible for global clinical development services, a multi-billion-dollar business unit, having joined Quintiles in 1985.


Ms. Stafford is also a co-founder and Managing Director for Habergeon LLC and an adjunct professor in Public Health Leadership for the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Stafford is also co-author, with Lisa T. Grimes, of the best-selling book, Remember Who You Are, published in 2018. Ms. Stafford previously served as a Board director at Health Decisions, Inc.,

Ms. Stafford holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Public Health in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2016, the university honored Ms. Stafford with its Distinguished Alumna Award. 

Honors and Awards

Co-Author, Remember Who YOU Are: Achieve Success. Create Balance. Experience Fulfillment
March 2018, Morgan James Publishing

Distinguished Alumna Award
October 2016, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Invited to provide expert testimony in a US Congressional hearing initiated by the US Energy & Commerce Committee
July 2014 , 21st Century Cures Initiative: Modernizing Clinical Trials

ACE Award - founder of Quintiles WIN Group presented to Quintiles, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association
November 2013, Quintiles, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association

Top 10 Women in Biopharma
2012, Fiercebiotech

Business Woman of the Year
2011, Triangle Business Journal

Education

  • Certificate, International Executive Program, INSEAD Graduate Business School in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore, 2004
  • MPH, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1992
  • BS, Public Health, specialization in Biostatistics , University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill , 1986