Holding considerable expertise in restaurant management, interviewing for TV and radio, writing, and reiki training, Paula A. Vail has worked in a number of varying fields over the course of her career. After earning her Associate of Arts in accounting from Grays Harbor College in 1979, she became the manager and owner of Lorenzo’s Restaurant, roles she held until she sold the restaurant in 2007. Following this, she became inspired to learn reiki after someone suggested that it might be a way to help her dog, who was old and having trouble walking. She opened her own reiki practice, Wellness Inspired, in 2008, where she works as a reiki master, both practicing the art and training other professionals.
Alongside her primary career responsibilities, Ms. Vail is an accomplished author as well. In 2019, she published “Why Am I So Happy? The Sign of True Success is a Happy Heart” with Motivational Press. This was followed by “Beyond Wellness: Usui Reiki Training Manual Levels I & II,” co-written with Debbie Dove and published through the Wellness Inspired Self Publishing Company, in 2021. Furthermore, she spent six years as host of the radio show and podcast “Elevating Your Life With Paula Vail” and is the founder of Jackie’s Safehaven, a nonprofit animal rescue.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Vail hopes to continue being a positive influence on the world and using her skills to help others. She also hopes to expand her animal rescue, Jackie’s Safehaven, which is located on the property where she grew up, which is an idyllic eight acres of land. In addition to the day-to-day operations of an animal rescue, she intends to eventually open an animal retreat center on the property as well to provide animals with reiki treatments. The rescue is named after her aunt Jackie, who was the one who inspired Ms. Vail with a great love for animals.
Ms. Vail attributes much of her present success to the decades she spent in the restaurant industry, her passion for being a force of positivity in the world, having a “server’s heart,” and cultivating gratitude in all aspects of her life. She further stands out in her field by the fact that she is her own unique person and stays true to herself. Early on, she decided that she had to be herself regardless of what others said and she has lived her life by the motto, “Love me or don’t, I’m going to be me,” ever since. Continuing to learn throughout her career, Ms. Vail has always found that being confronted with challenges can help to give you a better perspective and that believing in yourself can give you the power and strength to never give up.
For excellence in her career, Ms. Vail has been the recipient of a number of honors and accolades. Notably, she has received the Top Wellness Award from Best of Tacoma, and has also been featured in the Business Hall of Fame of the Tacoma Awards Program for eight consecutive years. Furthermore, her achievements have led to her induction in to the Best of Tacoma Society. Above all of her accomplishments, however, Ms. Vail cites the most gratifying aspect of her career to be all the lives she has affected and all the people and animals she has helped with her services.
Born in Aberdine, Washington, to parents Gordon and JoAnne Neva, Ms. Vail is herself the proud mother of three children, Brian, Diane and Corey, and grandmother to three wonderful grandchildren. She notes that her children and grandchildren are her absolute greatest personal achievement. Her family also includes her brother, her aunt, four dogs and two cats. When she is not working, Ms. Vail enjoys spending time with her animals, traveling, public speaking, and humanitarian work, which has taken her as far afield as Africa.
