About Paula Davis
FROM LAWYER TO STUDENT TO ARMY TO TRAINER
As the founder of the Stress & Resilience Institute, I am uniquely qualified to teach resilience skills within high stress professions. I am one of only three lawyers in the world to have graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Applied Positive Psychology program and been trained to teach resilience skills and tools to Army personnel as part of Penn’s resilience program with the Army.
Using a train-the-trainer model, the Penn team trained resilience skills to more than 40,000 soldiers and their families.
How can I help your organization?
Paula Davis | Founder, Stress & Resilience Institute
“Paula was a pleasure to work with, was responsive to our needs and put in the extra effort to customize our content, and then connected with our teams and our mission.”
PAULA DAVIS TIMELINE
2002-2009 | LAWYER
I practiced commercial real estate law for seven years, and burned out during what became the last year of my law practice. I thought practicing law was OK, but it was never a job that gave me a tremendous amount of meaning. I remember looking out the window of my 28th floor office thinking, “There has got to be more to life than this.”
2009-2010 | BACK TO SCHOOL
It took me over a year to identify my next career path. I thought I was going to become a pastry chef until I did an internship in San Francisco and hated every moment of it. Once I learned about the MAPP (Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology) program at the University of Pennsylvania, I knew I had found something to be passionate about, and I never looked back.
2011-2014 | TO THE ARMY
I had the good fortune to do my post-graduate work for the University of Pennsylvania, teaching and training resilience skills to soldiers and their families. This was a new program started by Penn and the US Army to help soldiers and their families cope with the stressors associated with multiple deployments and life in the Army generally. The Penn team trained more than 40,000 soldiers, and I had the great privilege to visit Army bases around the world.
2014-Present | BUSINESS OWNER
Once our work with the Army ended, I was able to spend 100% of my time focused on growing my business. I decided to focus on helping organizations prevent burnout and build more resilient teams, leaders and cultures. I apply many of the lessons I learned from my work with the soldiers to my work with leaders and teams across industry. Entrepreneurship and business ownership has been prevalent in my family for generations – I feel honored to continue the tradition.
2016 – Forever | MOM
Our daughter, Lucy Tess, arrived into our lives on April 2, 2016. I wasn’t sure motherhood would be in the cards for me for many reasons. The Universe had other plans, and out of all of the hats I now wear, being a mom is by far the most challenging and the most rewarding. I hope that Lucy learns from watching me that with really, really hard work, women can truly craft a career and a life that has impact and meaning (and fun!)
“Your work is making a difference in the world, and it’s making people’s lives better.”
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