Thomas King:  

Tom King was born Thomas Wayne King, and grew up in the small Seventh-day Adventist college town of Keene. He graduated from Valley Grande Academy in 1972 and Southwestern Adventist College in 1976 with a degree in English-Communications. During college he married Sheila Keen, a nursing student from Monroe, Louisiana and the couple has raised three children. He worked his way through college working summers at Lone Star Camp as a swimming and canoeing instructor and as waterfront director. Tom worked for Seventh-day Adventist schools for 5 years and has since spent more than two decades working for nonprofit organizations as a staff member, program director, executive director, public relations director and development officer. He's been part of startup teams that have created 6 new organizations providing services to children and adults with disabilities. On three of the projects, Tom served as team leader. He served as team member and as leader in efforts to successfully reorganize and rescue 3 struggling nonprofits. Between startups he has worked as a fund-raising and management consultant, facilitating workshops in grant writing, political advocacy, media and basic fund-raising. He has extensive experience as a grant-writer, workshop facilitator and disability advocate and has raised millions of dollars for East Texas charities. As coordinator for East Texas Just Transportation Alliance, a coalition of more than 30 transportation stakeholder agencies, King helped to increase funding for chronically under-funded public transit districts in East Texas. He has since been appointed to the Texas Department of Transportation’s State Public Transit Advisory Committee and serves as vice president of the Tyler Homeless Coalition. Tom is currently a fund-raising consultant and free lance writer. He is author of "The Charity Golf Tournament: A Survivor's Notebook" released by Emerson and Church Publishing, 2008. He won gold awards for his documentary screen-writing at the 1995 Wo...Expand for more