On April 20, 2023, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley presented Kathleen King (Class XVII), CEO of Healthier Kids Foundation, with the 2023 John W. Gardner Award.
The John W. Gardner Award, named for John W. Gardner (1912 – 2002), is awarded to Senior Fellows in recognition of those individuals who do an exemplary job of inspiring and motivating other leaders and building bridges between diverse communities.
About Kathleen King
Kathleen King retired from high tech after twenty years and is currently the CEO of Healthier Kids Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on the health needs of underserved children and youth of Silicon Valley. Healthier Kids Foundation has offered over 500,000 services in the last ten years focused on preventive screenings, education, and advocacy. From screenings, Healthier Kids has assisted 95,000 unique families that received a referral to access the care their children need utilizing their health insurance. The organization has universally screened over 5000 fifth and sixth graders for mental health concerns in the last three years.
Kathleen was elected to the Saratoga City Council in November of 2002 and served as Mayor of the city in 2005 and again in 2010. Ms. King served on the California State Dental Board, on the Santa Clara County Board of Education and is an appointed board member of the local Medi-Cal/Medicare Health Plan, Santa Clara Family Health Plan.
Kathleen King is a native of California, a member of the ALF Good Looking Class (Class XVII), and a happy Turkey Trotter. She attended public schools in San Jose and graduated from West Valley College and Santa Clara University. She resides in Saratoga with her husband, Mark Stark; they have five children, Marie, Allyssa, Nick, Matthew, and Robert. Robert has been through 39 surgeries and two bone marrow transplants.
