former American Samoa Medicaid Director Sandra King Young

SANDRA KING YOUNG

Tofoitaufā Sandra Salevasaosamoa King Young is among the 40 distinguished Samoans recognized by Radio Samoa International during its 40th Anniversary Gala for a lifetime of leadership, public service, and contributions to the Samoan community. Interviewed three times over the past 30 years by Radio Samoa, she was honored for her impactful work in the federal government, American Samoa government, community and for a career spanning more than three decades in healthcare, education, public policy, and government — leaving a lasting impact on countless lives throughout American Samoa and the Pacific.

Sandra King Young has devoted more than three decades to public service, improving healthcare, expanding educational opportunities, strengthening public institutions, and advocating for the people of American Samoa. A respected public policy strategist and accomplished leader, she is known for bringing vision, integrity, and results to every role she has undertaken.

Raised and educated in American Samoa, she has lived the majority of her life in the territory she proudly calls her homeland and where her heart belongs. For the past 25 years, she has lived and worked continuously in American Samoa since returning home to dedicate her life to service the day before 9/11.

Today, she is President of Blue Continent Consulting, LLC, a Pacific-focused public policy firm specializing in nonprofit development, organizational transformation, business process reengineering, and board governance. Her career spans government, healthcare, education, federal policy, and community leadership, reflecting a lifelong commitment to improving lives through effective public service.

King Young is best known for her transformative leadership as Director of the American Samoa Medicaid State Agency, where she served for nearly 12 years following a brief tenure as Chairman of the Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center Board. Under her leadership, the Medicaid program underwent its most significant modernization and expansion in territorial history. Her leadership and national advocacy helped increase the Medicaid federal funding for American Samoa and other territories and secured the highest Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage available to the US territories. 

She expanded the Medicaid provider network, broadened benefits for the first time in the territory’s history, and successfully re-established the Off-Island Medical Referral Program under the Medicaid State Agency, creating a more coordinated, accountable, and patient-centered system for specialized care.

Her problem-solving skills helped expand medical referrals and evacuations to Hawai'i and New Zealand, enrolled the Department of Health Community Health Centers as Medicaid providers to eliminate facility fees, enrolled the Hope House facility to provide support for the elderly and disabled, secured Medicaid coverage for durable medical equipment — including wheelchairs, CPAP machines, and hospital beds — as well as prosthetics and orthotics, eyeglasses and vision care, orthodontic (braces) care for children, and numerous other essential medical supplies that significantly improved patients' quality of life.

King Young’s leadership also extended well beyond American Samoa. For seven years, she served on the Board of the National Association of Medicaid Directors as Territorial Representative, helping shape national policy affecting America’s territories. She testified before congressional committees on three occasions and worked extensively with federal agencies to advocate for equitable healthcare funding. Working alongside the late Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga, she helped secure a historic increase in American Samoa’s annual Medicaid funding — from $11 million to $85 million — securing the long-term financial future of the territory’s healthcare system.

Long before entering local government, King Young demonstrated her passion for education by founding the Pacific Island Center for Educational Development (PiCED), serving as its Executive Director from 2002 to 2012. PiCED became the first and only nonprofit organization outside the American Samoa Government to receive dedicated congressional appropriations, securing nearly $3 million over a decade. Through its college preparation and SAT programs, countless students gained access to scholarships, internships, and higher education, opening doors to futures that might otherwise have remained beyond reach.

Her commitment to service has extended across numerous civic and governmental roles. She served as a delegate to the 2010 American Samoa Constitutional Convention, was appointed to the American Samoa Political Status Commission in 2022, and has chaired numerous public, nonprofit, and community boards since returning from Washington, D.C. In 2012, she was the candidate for Lieutenant Governor alongside Save Liuato Tuitele.

King Young’s public policy career began in Washington, D.C., where she spent a decade in senior legislative, policy, and advocacy roles. She began as an intern in the office of the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, focusing on healthcare, education, labor, and Pacific Island issues. She later became a federally registered lobbyist at the law firm Eckert Seamans, working under the mentorship of the late Honorable Lawrence Coughlin (R-PA), representing public and nonprofit interests before Congress and federal agencies.

She later returned to the U.S. Senate to serve as Senator Inouye’s Professional Democratic Staff Member on the Committee on Rules and Administration during the historic Clinton impeachment proceedings. During the 2000 presidential election, she served as National Outreach Director for the Asian Pacific Islander community for the Gore-Lieberman campaign. She subsequently returned to the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) to oversee the transition to the incoming Bush administration recommending the promotion of the OIA back to Assistant Secretary level.

A lifelong learner, King Young earned her Juris Doctor from The George Washington University Law School as an evening student. She served on the George Washington International Law Reviewand as Vice President of the Evening Law Students Association. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University and is an alumna of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship. She spent her first college summer at American Samoa Community College.

Her distinguished career has earned both territorial and national recognition. She was featured in The Women of American Samoa 1900–2000: A Hundred Years of Development and Achievement and was recognized by USA Today in its Women of the Century special edition as an honoree representing the U.S. territories. In 2026, Radio Samoa International honored her as one of its 40 Iconic Samoans for a lifetime of leadership, public service, and contributions to the Samoan community at home and abroad.

King Young is also a respected cultural and family leader. She holds the taupou title Tofoitaufā in her Sā Mailo family of Fagatogo, bestowed in 2003. She has long served as the matai Vaivao of her maternal grandmother’s Sā Tagaloa family of Saoluafata, Samoa (2006), and in 2024 received the title Puletiuatoa from her paternal grandfather’s family of Lepā, Samoa. As a child, she spent many summers raised by her grandparents in the village of Levī, Sale’imoa.

Deeply rooted in family, faith, and Samoan culture, King Young resides in Nu’uuli with her husband, Filifaiesea Seumanu Peter Young, and their sons, Pikasone and Likaki. Their eldest son, Leolemau, proudly serves in the United States Coast Guard and is stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.

A Samoa-born United States citizen, she is the daughter of the late Rowena Avaoniua King, née Johnson, and Jake King of Arab, Alabama, former owners and publishers of Samoa News and the Samoa Journal. Their pioneering work in media instilled in her a deep belief in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. She also proudly acknowledges her biological father, the late Unasa Te’o Leulu Dr. Felise Va’a of Vaie’e, Fagatogo, Faga, and Safotu, an accomplished anthropologist, author, and journalist.

 

Throughout every chapter of her life — from the villages of American Samoa to Washington, D.C. — Sandra Salevasaosamoa King Young has been guided by a simple belief: that leadership is measured not by titles held, but by actions taken to improve lives in the roles you are entrusted with. Whether advocating before Congress, strengthening healthcare, advancing education, or serving her community, she has dedicated her life’s work to building a stronger and more hopeful future for the people of American Samoa and the Pacific.