Pamela Paulk, M.S.W., M.B.A.

Vice President, Human Resources
The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System

Pamela Paulk grew up the fourth of six children on the Florida Panhandle in a town of shrimpers and military families called Niceville, where her father was in the Air Force. After graduating in two and a half years from Florida State University with majors in biology and psychology, she moved to a rural town where she knew no one, got a government job as an employment counselor for the poor, and volunteered in her off-hours with juvenile delinquents and the mentally ill. 

In 1996, she came to Johns Hopkins as a health care consultant, which gave her access to the inner workings of the institution. Since then she has held positions of vice president, Johns Hopkins International Global Services; acting administrator, Johns Hopkins Home Care Group; and director of operations integration. In November 2000, she was named vice president of human resources.

She received a master’s degree in social work from Florida State University and in 2004 graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a master’s degree in business administration.

Kidney donation has always been important to Pamela, having seen the difference kidney transplantation has made in the lives of two of her friends. She had the opportunity to be in the operating room to watch surgeon Robert Montgomery perform a kidney transplant and has spoken at a celebration for minority donors.

“There comes a point in my life where I can’t talk about something and not do it,” she says. That is why when she bumped into a Hopkins employee on his first day back from being out of work for 10 months and learned that his absence was due to a kidney issue, she immediately offered one of hers.

And on June 22, 2009, Ms. Paulk participated in the first 16-patient, multicenter kidney transplant. Dr. Robert Montgomery was her surgeon.