Leveraging Connection with Martha King

In a time of pandemic, she talks about how needed and powerful women’s connection influence can be, “Women play a special role because we’re natural healers, we’re natural connectors and I think our voices can make a difference in helping calm people and helping to bring people together.”  Martha also reflects on a lifetime of making rich connections and offers advice for all to accelerate the development of whole-hearted relationships.

Martha King just returned from almost a year as a U.S. Peace Corps “Response” Volunteer in Kabwe, Zambia.  She served as an HIV/AIDS Education Facilitator, working under the DREAMS initiative and with the Zambian Ministry of General Education to train teachers in 34 schools under the country’s campaign to prevent HIV infections and teen pregnancies.  DREAMS - Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe - is a USAID initiative in 10 African countries, including Zambia.  

Martha has over thirty years of experience working in health policy leadership for NCSL, a national bi-partisan membership organization of the 50 state legislatures, D.C. and the commonwealths and territories.  In this role, she served as program and partnership lead on multiple invitational multi-state meetings for state legislators, state health officials, Medicaid agency directors, maternal and child health directors, and others under grant-funded collaborations with several national partner organizations, including the National Governors Association and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.  Prior to her time with NCSL, she had seven years of experience in several staff positions for the Colorado General Assembly.

Martha served the U.S. Peace Corps for two years in South Korea just after graduation with a double major in Biology and Psychology from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.  Originally pre-med, Martha was inspired by working in rural county-level tuberculosis and leprosy control through the Peace Corp to pursue public health.  This led to her obtaining Masters Degrees in both Social Work and Public Administration from the University of Denver in Colorado.  Additionally she is extensively published with respect to public health and public policy.