Partner Spotlight: Ayana King
September 5, 2024

Founder and CEO of Maximum Communications, Ayana King is a devoted advocate for diversity and inclusion. King works to “help end racism, ageism, and other threats to humankind through engaging workshops and collaborative partnerships.” Through facilitation, hosting webinars, and consulting with executive teams, King works to create diverse and inclusive professional environments. 

King’s career in the DEI world began in 2014 when she left her job to finish her degree. While balancing a personal life and school, King also began working part-time in the senior living industry, “I loved it. It's an industry that I still do a lot of work in today, but it was so apparent to me, the lack of diversity and inclusion in so many ways, and at that time I didn't even have language for what I was seeing,” King said. 

“I was an hourly employee… hourly employees are treated differently sometimes, and I was in a place that was not very racially and ethnically diverse, and we were serving an older white population.” 

After being promoted to a corporate position, King experienced the lack of diversity and inclusion in new ways, but joining the Public Relations Society of America and their Diversity and Inclusion committee kickstarted King’s passion, “I started doing a lot of work on my own, started going to webinars, and started reading about it… as my experience grew in this corporate setting, the more I learned about diversity and inclusion, truthfully, the more frustrated I got.” As King continued to build up her experiences and expertise in social media, public relations, and communications, she decided to start her own company. 

King recounted the early days of her company, while talking to clients she would ask them questions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but did not yet have the words to explicitly say that her programming was based on DEI. 

In 2018, King hosted her first workshop, “I got my first client out of that workshop, just truly talking about what diversity, equity, and inclusion is and why we should advocate for it more strongly in the workplace.” King’s company continued to grow and she soon began focusing all of her energy on finding people in organizations, specifically the C-suite, who really wanted to advocate for DEI, but did not know how. 

“In those early days I was doing a lot of learning myself… I started the work, not just knowing the words, but the work of really understanding and learning how to communicate it myself.” Through the work King has accomplished, she is able to create environments where people can feel accepted and where respect and trust is cultivated. 

However, King said that inclusivity in the workplace cannot truly be cultivated until bias is discussed, specifically negative unconscious bias. “To continue to talk about inclusion, but refusing to talk about all the ways in which we can’t get there, is irresponsible. It’s important for us to have communicators who can help people navigate those kinds of conversations because we have to have them,” King said. 

King described the most important way to confront bias is coming together and learning from one another, “As time goes on, our workplaces are becoming more diverse… it's going to become more important for people to work together to understand their differences.” 

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Ayana King's journey from recognizing the gaps in diversity and inclusion to founding Maximum Communications illustrates her dedication to creating inclusive workplaces, “It's been a real joy for me to be able to express myself in this way, and maybe even show up as the advocate I would have needed as an employee,” King said. 

Through her advocacy and strategic initiatives, King has fostered dialogue, challenged biases, and empowered organizations to embrace diversity fully. King's vision for a more equitable future continues to shape corporate cultures where respect and inclusion are essential.