Paula Daniels is the inaugural Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Office of Food Systems, a partnership between the County of Los Angeles and leading Los Angeles philanthropic organizations. She is also co-founder and founding chair of the Center for Good Food Purchasing whose signature program received a 2018 Future Policy award from the World Future Council, UN FAO, and IFOAM Organics International, and has been adopted in over 25 U.S. metropolitan areas. Paula also founded the Los Angeles Food Policy Council.

She is a lawyer and public policy leader in environmental food and water policy, with extensive experience in government. She served as Senior Advisor to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, as Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner (a full-time executive position), as a commissioner with the California Coastal Commission, on the governing board of the California Bay-Delta Authority, overseeing the California State Water Project, and on the California Water Commission.

A partial list of her recognition through academic appointments and other awards includes: Ashoka Fellowship (2018); Resident Fellowship at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation (2016); Stanton Fellowship of the Durfee Foundation (2012-2013); Pritzker Environment and Sustainability Education Fellow at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (2015); Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning (2013); LA Weekly, Top Ten People Making LA a Better Place (2012); Green LA Coalition Honoree of the Year (2012); Water Quality Leadership Award, LA Regional Water Quality Control Board (2007); Environmental Leadership Award, California League of Conservation Voters (2005); Super Healer Award, Heal the Bay (1991).

She has also taught food policy at UCLA School of Law, UCLA Dept of Urban Planning, UC Berkeley Urban Planning, and Vermont Law School.