Betty Eileen King served the United States under Presidents Clinton and Bush as the Representative to The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In that capacity Ambassador King supervised and coordinated the activities of the United States in the Council and in the UN General Assembly. She represented US interests in a wide range of issues including finance for development, population, refugees, HIV/AIDS, the environment, women, children and the aged, and the participation of non-governmental organizations in the UN. She was the principal negotiator for the Millennium Development

Goals, eight time-bound development targets with the overarching goal of halving poverty by 2015 - which were agreed to by world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. She participated in the UN conventions on population and women, led the US delegation on related foreign missions and served on the executive boards of the UN Funds and Programmes i.e. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Development and Population Fund. Ambassador King is widely recognized for her role in the admission of Israel into a regional grouping at the United Nations for the first time in the history of the UN.
In 2004 Ms King started an independent philanthropic advisory practice through which she advises two large foundations - The Atlantic Philanthropies and The California Endowment and an investment firm – Magna Securities. She concurrently chairs the health sector of The Global Women’s Action Network for Children, where she works in collaboration with The World Bank and Columbia University. The specific focus of this work is the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rates in the ten countries with the highest worldwide prevalence of these fatalities.

From 2001 – 2003 Ms King was The Senior Advisor to the President and CEO of the California Endowment, a 3 billion dollar philanthropic organization dedicated to the improvement of the health of all Californians. During her tenure Ms King developed and implemented a strategic approach to that foundation’s philanthropy that focused on access to healthcare and on disparities in health status and healthcare.

From 1990 to 1997 Ms King was the first Vice President and Director of Operations at the Annie E Casey Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and families. There, she supervised and managed the development of the foundation’s fiscal, administrative and grants management programs as well as the development and implementation of its health, mental health and communications initiatives, including the foundation’s signature KIDS COUNT initiative.

From 1986 –1990 worked in the District of Columbia government where she worked on the planning of the historic transfer of St. Elizabeth’s hospital from the federal government to the District government. She subsequently served as the Deputy Commissioner for Mental Health Services and was principally responsible for the subsequent dramatic reductions in inpatient populations and the concurrent development of community based alternative systems of care. She was specifically responsible for the development of the first residential treatment program for seriously emotionally disturbed children in the District of Columbia.

From 1981 to 1985 Ms King worked at the University of Arkansas School of Medical Sciences where she developed gerontology programs. She subsequently served as the Executive Director of the Southwest Society on Aging, a professional organization that operated in Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.