Paula Boggs

Paula Boggs (born 1959) is an American attorney, musician, public speaker, and former military officer. She is the leader of the Paula Boggs Band.

Boggs is the founder of Boggs Media, LLC, a business that manages her music, speaking, and other creative business activities. She is also a board member of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations. She served as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of law and corporate affairs at Starbucks Corporation from 2002 to 2012.

Early life Boggs is the oldest of four, and was born to parents Janice Barber and Nathaniel Boggs Jr. in Washington, D.C. She was raised Catholic. In 1972 her parents divorced and her mother took the kids to Europe, where she accepted teaching and administrator positions in Germany and Italy with the Department of Defense Schools System.

Career Boggs served as vice president, legal, for products, operations and technology at Dell Computer Corporation, and as a partner at the law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP. She served as an sssistant U.S. sttorney, and in various capacities as an attorney for the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Legal Counsel. She served as a regular officer in the United States Army, and earned Army Airborne wings and a congressional appointment to the US Naval Academy, among America's first women to do so. She served in the policy-making body of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. Boggs also served on the Iran-Contra task force during the Reagan administration.

1981-1988: regular officer in the army 1987-1988: staff attorney, White House Iran-Contra Legal Task Force 1988-1994: assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington 1994: staff director, Advisory Board on the Investigative Capability of Department of Defense 1995-1997: partner at the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis 1997-2002: vice president at Dell Corporation 2002-2012: executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Starbucks Corporation 2007–present: frontwoman, Paula Boggs Band

Memberships and affiliations Boggs serves on the boards of Thinkific, Banzai International, and Newport Festivals Foundation.

She is a former board member of Avid, a leading provider of digital media technologies for media organizations and independent professionals, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, a former governor of the American Bar Association, trustee emerita of the Johns Hopkins University, former board member and secretary of public radio station KEXP and former director of School of Rock LLC. She was named NASDAQ's top general counsel in 2009. Boggs served as a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions from 2010 to 2012. She is a former chair of Legal Aid for Washington, and a former board member of the Seattle Art Museum. She was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013 as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She resigned from the President's Committee in August, 2017, co-signing a letter of resignation that said in reference to President Trump, "Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions." She also served on the board of governors for the national American Red Cross, and is a former board member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Music career Boggs has written and recorded four full-length albums fronting the Paula Boggs Band, and has recorded two EPs. Se owns over 30 U.S. copyrights. She is also a voting member and a governor of The Recording Academy, Pacific Northwest Chapter Board, explores her transition from a legal career to a musical path.

Writing career Boggs's essays have appeared in national publications such as HuffPost and National Law Journal.

Education Boggs received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, in international studies, where she was on a four-year Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship and graduated first in her ROTC class. She then attended the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Awards and recognition "The Presidential Service Certificate for Honorable Service in the White House", 1988 "Defense Meritorious Service Medal for Exceptionally Meritorious Service for the Armed Forces of the United States", 1987 The Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumna Award, 2009 U.S. Army Infantry Parachute Badge, 1980 U.S. Department of Justice Special Achievement Award ("for sustained superior performance of duty" 1990, 1991) Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence, 1994 American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award, 2006 Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice, 2006 National Bar Association Wiley A. Branton Award, 2008 NASDAQ's Top General Counsel, 2009 WNBA Seattle Storm Woman of Distinction, 2012 Appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1981, 1977 Army ROTC Four-Year Scholarship (graduated first in Johns Hopkins University ROTC Class of 1981) Distinguished Military Graduate, 1981 U.S. Army Honorable Discharge, 1988 Seattle Mayor's Arts Award, 2018 Honorary Doctor of Laws, Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas), 2021 Puget Sound Business Journal Board Director of the Year, 2021 Savoy Magazine Most Influential Black Corporate Director, 2021 Voting Member of Recording Academy since 2011 Johns Hopkins University Heritage Award, 2023 American Bar Association Stonewall Award, 2024 Seattle Reign FC Legend Award, 2024 Folk Alliance International Lifetime Member