Hilary King is an applied anthropologist with experience working in academic institutions, grassroots organizations and international NGOs. She is currently the Director of Strategic Governance and Board Engagement at CARE. In this capacity, she works with the leadership team and Board of Directors to develop and implement the CARE network's evolving organizational strategy, serving as a primary connection between CARE International and CARE USA.

Prior to joining CARE, Hilary worked with the Emory Master's in Development Practice in various roles since 2017, including Associate Director from 2020 to 2024. Her primary contributions included overall program leadership, coordinating and ensuring curriculum coherence, directing admission and recruitment processes, mentoring and supporting students, and teaching some of the MDP core courses (which she continues to do as Visiting Faculty). 

Hilary's research has focused on the organizational dynamics of community development initiatives, largely in the area of sustainable food systems. Her most recent work, which hired multiple MDP student research assistants, explores how farmers market management shapes farmer economic viability and quality of life in the Southeast U.S. (for more information see Southern SARE “Managing Markets). Prior to that, she worked with organic and natural food markets and producers in Southern Mexico and with coffee farmers and cooperatives in Latin America and East Africa.

Hilary's has supported the development of innovative food system initiatives. Examples include the development of the MARTA Markets, weekly fresh produce stands at public transit stations in Atlanta and direct trade relationships between farmers in the Dominican Republic and consumers in the United States. In Atlanta, Hilary regularly collaborates with Community Farmers Markets, Global Growers Network, and Georgia Organics to foster and monitor changes in the local food system.

She completed her doctoral degree in Anthropology at Emory University, and holds a Master's degree in the Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation from the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. Her work has been supported by Thomas J. Watson and Fulbright Fellowships. Hilary was a 2022 Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership fellow and a member of the 2018 LEAD Atlanta Class, initiatives designed to equip promising professionals with the skills necessary to be effective leaders committed to the common good.

A native Oregonian, Hilary also loves hiking and has trekked the trails in most of Georgia State Parks with her husband and their rescue German Shepherd.