Agatha M. King, MHA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC
Agatha M. King, MHA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, is a seasoned public health professional, registered nurse, and healthcare executive with more than four decades of experience spanning clinical care, leadership, education, and rural health systems management. She began her nursing career in 1983 and dedicated 28 years to Women and Children’s Services, advancing from bedside nursing into progressive leadership roles. Over the course of her career, she has built deep expertise in system leadership, workforce strategy, quality management, patient safety, and healthcare innovation, with a consistent focus on improving outcomes through strong teams and evidence-based practice.
Her professional journey has been defined by continuous growth and reinvention. She went on to serve as Assistant Vice President at Advocate Healthcare, where she led a nursing resource team that expanded from approximately 160 to nearly 900 healthcare practitioners under her leadership. After retiring from formal healthcare practice in 2018, she and her husband relocated to New Mexico, where she transitioned into public service through rural water system governance. What began as volunteer board service evolved into her assuming operational leadership of a community water system in 2019, followed by executive leadership as Secretary-Treasurer for the New Mexico Rural Water Association, where she advocates for the sustainability and advancement of small and rural water systems statewide.
Agatha’s work reflects a lifelong commitment to public health, leadership development, and service to underserved communities. She has maintained her nursing licensure and professional certifications throughout her career, viewing safe drinking water management as an extension of public health practice. In addition to her operational and advocacy roles, she has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, where she taught healthcare administration, quality improvement, safety, and policy. Her most meaningful professional accomplishment, however, is the development of leaders many of whom continue to seek her mentorship today reflecting her belief in collaboration, empowerment, and building sustainable leadership capacity in every organization she serves.
• Registered Nurse (RN)
• Certified Nurse Executive Advanced (NEA-BC)
• Health and Wellness Coach
• Small Water System Operator
• Negotiations
• NEA-BC
• USC Sol Price School of Public Policy - MHA
• Samford University - BA, Communications, Nursing
• The University of Alabama - BSN
• Office Manager of the Year (2 years ago
• For water system)
• Pinnacle Award Nomination
• Advocate Health (1 of 12 out of 60
• 000 employees)
• New Mexico Rural Water Association (Executive Board
• Secretary-Treasurer)
• American College of Healthcare Executives
• American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE)
• Sigma Theta Tau (nursing professional organization)
• Organization of Associate Degree Nurses (OADN)
• National Rural Water Association
• Water Pro Academy
• Daughters of the American Revolution
• Transformation Church
• Soul Winners (Charlotte)
• American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)
• Kamado Lake Scholarship Committee (Secretary)
• Agatha Marie Conrad King Leadership Endowed Scholarship
• University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing
• Judicial Watch
• Turning Point USA
• Tim Tebow Foundation
• Chosen People Ministries
• Billy Graham and Samaritan's Purse
• Food for the Poor
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to staying focused on what God has called me to do and not trying to come up with a bunch of different things I want to do on my own. I always ask myself, where am I being called? What doors has He opened for me? Because He specifically says that He can open doors that no man can close, and He can close doors no man can open. He has always been instrumental in opening and closing the doors that needed to be opened and closed for me at the right time. I stay focused on Him and where He would have me put my efforts. It's easy to say, wow, I'm tired of this and I want to go try that, but if it's not happening, it's not something we should try to force. Like with the health coach thing, every time I think I'm not going to do that because I'm so busy with the water system, somebody else comes along and asks me about my health journey and wants me to coach them. So I'm happy to help other people get on a healthy path when those opportunities present themselves, but I don't seek it out or force it. I let God guide me and expand my territory wherever I go.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came when I went to the University of Southern California for my master's degree. The most important thing I learned was that you can always reinvent yourself. You don't always have to stay in one lane. The other crucial piece of advice was to always be available to do the things nobody else wants to do. If you're willing to do the hard things that nobody else wants to do, then you're going to be the go-to person. In all of my leadership roles, my direct report would tell me the outcomes they wanted to see, like X, Y, and Z, and it was up to me to figure out how to make it happen. I absolutely loved that because I got to be really creative in how I came up with solutions. I always felt strongly that whatever I did had to be done as a team, never just me alone. I would gather a team of people to work with me, and in doing that, not only would we accomplish what we needed to accomplish, but I was also building leaders in the process. Another really influential piece of advice came from attending a Stephen Covey workshop early in my leadership career, where we actually got to meet Stephen Covey. The 7 Habits of Effective Leaders was very instrumental in helping me streamline my processes and how I organized my work from day to day, week to week, month to month.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My greatest joy in life is my family. I have the most amazing family, and probably my greatest joy is when I get to travel and see my kids and my grandkids and spend time with them. My husband and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in October, and I've been having a ton of fun planning our trip where we're taking our kids and grandkids on a big trip together. I also love gardening and being connected to the earth. We have a large garden outside where we're getting ready to plant carrots and green beans, we have broccoli in our greenhouse, and I also do some aquaponic gardening in the house. In my work, I value giving back to the community and helping others. I love what I do and I love giving back to our community. I've always enjoyed every minute of what I have done, and even though there are times when things can be overwhelming and you can have really busy, hard days, at the end of the day, I still love what I do. I also value staying humble in my accomplishments and focusing on the impact I make on others rather than the accolades I receive. As my nephew wrote in his book The Invisible Medal, it's not about the medals we earn or the accolades we receive, but about the people we know we have in some way, shape, or form made a difference in their lives.
Locations
QLWA
Quemado, NM 87829