Dr. Robert Paone
Strategic National Stockpile Coordinator, Massachusetts Dept of Public Health

Robert P. Paone is the Statewide Strategic National Stockpile Coordinator for the Emergency Preparedness Bureau of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.   In assuming this position in 2003 he was challenged with assisting the health departments in the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts with preparing their all hazard plans. These plans would provide the necessary medical countermeasures to more than 6.3 million residents of and visitors to the Commonwealth should the need arise.

Early in plan development it became evident that a sophisticated warehouse and distribution system was needed to manage all federal medical material flowing into the Commonwealth.  This system needed to be sufficiently robust to meet the medical needs associated with potential threats, whether natural, industrial, or man made, to the publics’ health.  To meet this challenge Dr. Paone engaged and organized private warehouse and distribution businesses in Massachusetts to provide their service and expertise whenever a threat is evidenced. 

Dr. Paone received his B.S. in Pharmacy degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Science and his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, now known as the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.  Dr. Paone is a registered pharmacist in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and served as a member of the Board of Registration in Pharmacy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to taking his current position with the Department of Public Health.  Dr. Paone attained the rank of Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences and held clinical positions in pharmacy practice at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital serving on many hospital standing committees and earlier at the then Boston University Medical Center. 

Dr. Paone also held the position of Associate Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Center of Boston, a clinical research organization for the pharmaceutical industry which conducted clinical trials of investigational medications with emphasis on investigational medications involving diseases of the cardiovascular and gastroenterological systems.  For more than 20 years he was an invited member and reviewer for the New England Baptist Hospital’s Institutional Review Board the focus of which was to review all clinical trial protocols for patient safety prior to implementation.

Dr. Paone is a member of the Massachusetts Pharmacists Association and in the past served on the Board of Trustees and as President (’89-’90).   He is also a member of the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Dr. Paone is a Eucharistic Minister and for 18 years provided the training of all Eucharistic Ministers for the St. Thomas More parish in Braintree.  He also served on the finance committee for the St. Thomas More parish and assisted in the monthly food basket initiative of the parish for families from the greater Braintree community in need.

Dr. Paone is a veteran and was awarded an Honorable Discharge from the United States Navy.

Awards and Commendations

He is particularly proud of the “Citation for Community Excellence” he received from the Honorable Mayor of the City of Peabody, Michael J. Bonfanti in recognition for his effort to meet the medical and pharmaceutical needs of the hundreds of persons displaced following a large apartment complex fire in that city in May, 2008.

Dr. Paone is the 2009 Bowl of Hygeia Award recipient.  A distinction awarded by pharmacist peers for his years of service to the profession and the community.

As a member of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s H1N1 Response Team, Dr. Paone shared the Governor’s 2009 Manuel Carballo Award for excellence in state service with other members of the H1N1-team.