Since
graduating from West Valley College more than 30 years ago, Saratoga
Mayor Kathleen King has taken the college's mission of community service
to heart and has devoted herself to making the West Valley a better
place for everyone.
It seems all her hard work is paying off.
King
was recently named one of the "2010 Women of Influence" in Silicon
Valley by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.
King was
one of 100 women chosen for the honor. The award recognizes and
celebrates the "accomplishments of women who are leaders in either the
private, public or not-for-profit sectors, who have quickly climbed the
corporate ladder or branched out to start their own companies, and who
give back to their communities as board members, volunteers and as role
models."
"The women listed exemplify many of the attributes that
make Silicon Valley a global leader in business, philanthropy and public
policy. The experience and skills these women demonstrate have helped
to innovate and shepherd the valley to success," said James MacGregor,
Business Journal publisher.
King, who says she was very surprised
and thrilled to be chosen, was nominated by her alma mater, West Valley
College.
"We're really proud of all our alumni," said Lori Gaskin,
president of WVC, "and when they give back of themselves to the
community, it feels good to recognize that."
King attended the
college from 1975 to 1976, where she received her associate's degree in business
administration before completing her bachelor's degree in business at
Santa Clara University. As the oldest of seven children—and with three
of those children attending college within three years of each
other—King says the only way she could obtain a higher education was to
attend community college."I can say truthfully that I am not
sure I could have gone to college without West Valley College," she
said.
Since then, her devotion to the college has never
diminished.
"Kathleen has demonstrated such a commitment to West
Valley College and it immediately resonated with me that she is a true
believer in community colleges," Gaskin said. "Her belief in what we do
is so authentic."
After graduating from college, King went on to
have a successful career as a senior executive at Applied Materials. She
also entered the political arena and was elected to the Saratoga City
Council in 2002 and first served as its mayor from 2004 to 2005. In her
then-role as mayor, she was instrumental in negotiating a truce between
the college and its surrounding homeowners, paving the way for the
college's first successful bond measure.
But it is her work in
another area that she has been most passionate about. After the birth of
her son Robert, who suffers from a rare recessive gene syndrome that
causes a deficiency of enzymes used for metabolizing proteins in the
body, she became the driving force behind creating a children's hospital
in San Jose, the largest city in the nation without one. She is a
founder and president of the Silicon Valley Children's Hospital
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that partnered with Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital to focus on the establishment of a children's
hospital in San Jose.
She is also the executive director of the
Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization that
raises funds to support the Healthy Kids insurance program and the
Children's Health Initiative in Santa Clara County. King says the
organization raises between $10 million and $14 million a year that goes
toward providing children in the county with access to quality health
care.
"With my son's condition, there isn't a job I would rather
be doing than making sure all children have health insurance," King
said. "In Santa Clara County, there used to be one in eight children
living without health insurance, but now we have nearly 97 percent who
have coverage. This is the work that matters."
Gaskin says the
college is honored to have one of its own making such a huge positive
impact in the community and is elated that she has been chosen a "Woman
of Influence."
"It's an affirmation that our larger community
recognizes the contributions that Kathleen has made to the community
near and dear to our hearts," she said. "It really has come full circle.
We've given in terms of education and Kathleen benefited from that.
Then she turns and gives back to the community as a leader and the
community benefits from that."
King will be featured in the March
19 issue of the Business Journal and will be honored at a dinner at The
Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on April 8.