B.S.ing with Paula Boggs

After an unparalleled 30-year legal career, Paula Boggs followed her heart and her passion and took a leap into the unknown to launch a music career. In this episode of B.S.: Beyond Stereotypes, Paula and Merle Vaughn talk about their upbringings and experiences growing up surrounded by highly educated southern Black people. They then dive into why Paula went to law school instead of military active duty and discuss how living within your means can allow you to be your authentic self in the workplace. Finally, Paula explores how current events influence her music.


Paula Boggs is the founder of Boggs Media, LLC, a business that manages her music, speaking, and other creative business activities. She is a musician, public speaker, writer, lawyer and philanthropist. She is also a board member of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Paula served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Law and Corporate Affairs at Starbucks Corporation from 2002 to 2012. Her prior professional experience includes serving 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 also had a 14-year career in public service, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, 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 eight years as a Regular Officer in the United States Army, earned Army Airborne wings and a Congressional appointment to the US Naval Academy – among America’s first women to do so.

Paula Boggs is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies (economics, energy policy) from Johns Hopkins University. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law.

Since leaving Starbucks, Paula Boggs has volunteered for a presidential campaign, serves on for-profit and non-profit boards, raises money in support of causes she champions, gives speeches across the United States and beyond, writes music, co- produces albums for and tours extensively with Paula Boggs Band. In 2013, President Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and in 2018 she received the Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award.

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