Paula Buick, Director of Healthcare and Health Sciences Planning

This month, PAYETTE welcomes Paula Buick, RN, MBA, LEED Green Associate as Director of Healthcare and Health Sciences Planning!

At PAYETTE, our people are our primary asset. Paula re-joins PAYETTE as Director of Healthcare and Health Sciences Planning. In 2012, Paula took a sabbatical to work for the MIT Center for Technology as their Senior Research Project Director for Healthcare Research. There she led a team on a DOD project in which they worked on researching and identifying new systems and solutions for the military health system related to PTSD. During her time at PAYETTE, Paula worked on many projects including Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, VA Brockton, the Aga Khan University Medical Center and UMass Medical Center. As a Director of Design Services, Paula combines strong project management experience with a unique perspective of clinical operations, having been an ICU nurse and Senior Project Manager at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for 16 years. Welcome back, Paula!

Here, Paula shares her approach—and a bit about herself!

Q: Why do you do what you do?
I like people. I enjoy working with people to solve problems, inform decision-making and help them think and plan for the future. I love the science and art inherent in healthcare and medical education. 

Q: What are you most excited about in regards to your new role at PAYETTE?
I’m excited about re-engerizing healthcare and educational planning.

Q: Where is your favorite place in the world?
West Cork, Ireland

Q: Whom do you admire?
People who are reverent about important things and people who are irreverent about unimportant things. Also, Jim O’Connell and the staff working at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless.

Q: What’s on your iPod?
I listen to a lot of podcasts, like: the BBC’s “Arts and Ideas,” NPR’s “This American Life” and “Science Friday.” I also listen to Radiohead, U2, Eminem and opera (my favorite is La Traviata).

Q: What is something people would be surprised to know about you? 
On Saturdays my father used to take me to the Belfast city forensics lab and I loved it (he was a detective inspector in the police).

Q: The sky is the limit: if you could redesign anything, what would it be?
Today – the military health system.

Q: What do you do in your free time?
Walk, read, sleep

Q: What do you follow?
I use Zite to get news online. I follow ESPN and I listen to a lot of radio like the BBC and NPR.

Q: What inspires you? 
I am inspired by kindness, the Irish coastline/countryside, traveling to different cultures and great art and music.