With Brazil women's national volleyball team, she won three World Grand Prix editions and got medals in various tournaments, including the 1996 Olympics in the United States and the 1994 FIVB World Championship in Japan.

After retiring from volleyball in 2010, Paula moved to Los Angeles, California, where she majored in architecture at UCLA and is now studying to get a master's degree in political science.

Noted for her conservative views, she had a column in newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and joined news station Jovem Pan.

[2] Paula has been married three times, first to basketballer Jeffty Connelly from 1994 to 1998, and then to volleyball coach Marcus Miranda, with whom she had a son.

[3][4] She was considering a fifth Olympic appearance in 2012, but retired as she was developing panic disorder and started resenting being too absent for her son.