Paula is Senior Fellow at the Center for Peacemaking Practice, George Mason University. For twenty years she co-directed the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding which she co-founded at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). For 25 years she taught courses in mediation, conflict resolution, civic and community engagement at UC Irvine, and gang mediation and negotiation at UCI, and at California State University, Los Angeles. She directed several academic programs at UCI, including the Mediation Certificate Program, Minor in Conflict Resolution, and Minor in Civic and Community Engagement.

Since 1994, she has facilitated citizen dialogues and taught peaceful problem solving skills in conflict zones in the South Caucasus and Middle East. Her work as a peace practitioner and researcher has led to a number of publications in books and journals, and to a commitment to promoting the mainstreaming of peace literacy K-16 worldwide.