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Top Left: Allen King in his traditional attire and feathers.
Top Right: Allen King
Bottom: Allen King at a testing center during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Addiction to Reclaiming His Feathers - How Allen King's Culture Saved His Life
 

My name is Allen King, I am Zuni Pueblo and Dine’ originally from Mariano Lake, NM and I now reside in Phoenix, AZ. I am currently the Vice President of Sunrise Native Recovery in Scottsdale Arizona. I have been in many leadership positions before, such as Executive Director of Diversity, Culture, and Inclusion, Executive Director of American Indian & Alaskan Native Development, Management Analyst/Charge Master Coordinator, Front Desk Office Manager, Lead Customer Service Representative, and many other supervision titles with other different types of positions before I committed to my passion for serving and giving back to the community in the health field. In June of 2022, I received my first associate’s college degree in Business Health Management Focus at Easter Gateway Community College (online). I am still currently in college pursuing another certificate in Business Health Administration and then after that, Business Management with Human resources. I am sure many of you are questioning, how did I get to such a high leadership level before I had a college degree. Hard work and believing in myself are what helped!
 
What key moments defined you as a leader?

I have two very fond moments that I look back on almost daily, first is the very moment I fell in love with helping my community when I was on a call back in the mid-2000s with an elder. I was the one who figured out a life-or-death situation, which led to my ah-ha moment. The next moment was when I realized that whether there is one person standing or sitting in front of me, or 500, if I am giving a speech, people will stop and listen to my story.
 
What community-driven projects have you spearheaded/participated in that you
are proud of? What did you take away from these experiences?

I had just left my job with the Indian Health Services and took a risk and started a new job with a lab. I truly believed in the services the lab provided and wanted to implement that into our tribal health care system. As Covid-19 hit the entire world, instead of staying home I ran into the pandemic. I helped create the first mobile testing unit with Native Health in Phoenix and we entered ground zero to support the Navajo, Hopi, other tribes in Arizona, and tribal reservations out of state.

We set up testing sites in rural areas deep into the reservations where tribal members didn’t have access or could not make it to any other testing sites. These testing sites were anywhere between two to three hours from the nearest hospital. I volunteered many hours helping and working side by side with dedicated nurses. Some days we tested over 500 patients in a day. I was also very proud that we were the first ones to test the first responders in the reservations to keep them safe, as many of them were making sure the community was safe. They were almost forgotten, and we made sure they had a chance to be tested.

Every chance I get I volunteer my time, from speaking at youth camps, youth powwows, food banks, speaking events, and my kid’s preschool and school activities. I am highly active in the community, currently as Vice President of a substance abuse program for tribal members. We have successfully created a combination of a clinic, culture, and science program. Where each tribal member comes from that we serve, I make a trip back to that reservation and see where we as an organization can help and give back.

I truly believe that we can not do this alone. As much as a tribal member needs help from our facility, we need help from the community and the community needs our help as well. My biggest focus is to eliminate communication barriers and to come together. Coming together is coming home.
 
How do you connect with your ancestral roots professionally and personally?

I was raised both off and on the reservation my whole childhood. Both my parents are from the boarding school era. I was raised on a farm in Idaho with electricity and running water until the harvest of potatoes was done. Then we would move back to the reservation and live off the land with no running water and electricity in Mariano Lake, NM.

Moving so much when I was younger, I had lost my identity as a Native American. This wasn’t my parents' fault, but was a choice that was made for us kids to be raised in a very confusing time. My parents recognized the disconnect, so we were initiated into the powwow circle. I started to carry eagle feathers at the age of five. As time grew and I became older, I started experimenting with alcohol and drugs at a young age and I quickly became addicted. I lost many things in my active addiction - homes, relationships, jobs, and almost my life.

One day in 1998, a ceremony was done for me. At that time I was very sick, I lost a lot of weight, and was very heavy into my drug use. During this ceremony, I was asked what makes me happy, and the only thing that came to mind was I missed my feathers. My parents had taken that away from me for my safety. I missed dancing in pow-wows. As the ceremony went on, the medicine man explained to me that one day I will be happy again, but I must go through my storm to get there. Many years passed, I was still heavy into addiction, and I lost my freedom for the second time. The day my daughter was born, I said I was done, so in a way the love of my daughter saved me.

This year, on 10/30/2022 I will be 12 years sober. In 2011, after a year my daughter was born, my mother handed my feathers back to me and said I had earned the right to carry them again. I have danced in movies, cancer awareness events, concerts, and conferences, and many NBA and MLB games. I also now dance in Gourd Dancing, I was recently in a documentary and was asked to speak on an ABC network locally here in Arizona.

My culture saved my life. My culture has been there for me and keeps me in recovery. I am currently a Firestarter with the White Bison Wellbriety Movement, a Native American step process to recovery. I conduct talking circles, I help and mentor people in recovery, and I help with sweat lodges. All this is for my love of dancing. I am very proud to say that my kids are also dancing along beside me. We continue to do our best to honor our people.
 
As a leader, what motivates you to move forward in adversity? Where do you find your passion?
Connecting with other tribal members and even non-tribal members who want to give back to their community helps keep me motivated. As I stated earlier, we are coming home. There are so many entrepreneurs that have so much to give and provide, especially in our reservations. It is time we go home, and team up and work together.

That is what drives me, to see the good in people, to see the good in us, to help them see they are loved, and the Creator loves them just as much as he loves me and saved me. My passion is obviously our community, and mainly our elders. We need to learn more from them and listen.
Join our STEM Equity Event Thursday: Making Impact: Leveraging Collaborations and Partnerships to Advance STEM Equity 4:00 ET

Moderated by Dr. Susan Swayze, Founder & CEO Diversity Think Tank. Dr. Swayze is a DEI strategist and an expert researcher who combined her two loves to form Diversity Think Tank to help organizations identify transformative solutions and accomplish audacious goals. She is also an associate professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Speakers include:
  • Melvin Stallings, President, Cyber Green Group
  • Dr. Janelle M. Johnson, Associate Professor of STEM Education, Metropolitan State University
  • Lisette Torres-Gerald, Senior Research Associate and Program Coordinator, TERC
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GlobalMindED 2023 Call For Proposals: Due November 21

SAVE the DATE 2023: June 7 Inclusive Leader Awards Dinner,
First Gen Leadership Program

June 8, 9 GlobalMindED Conference
2023 Denver, Colorado

Highlights from the Resolve to Solve in Atlanta below. You can watch a YouTube video of the entire day,thanks to WABE/PBS Atlanta.
Rose Scott with Dr. Glenda Glover, Dr. David Thomas, and Dr. M. Brian Blake
Michael Render, AKA "Killer Mike"
June 2022 Conference Summary in Photos and Videos
We had an inspiring conference in June after two years of virtual gatherings due to COVID. If you missed that, you can still be a part of the experience through the photos from the 2022 GlobalMindED conference, as well as seeing the complete program for connections and inspiration.



Video remarks:
Honoring the 2022 Inclusive Leader Award Winners. Please see their stories:
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