Vivian Sanks King was a member of the NAACP while enrolled at Rutgers-Newark, but migrated toward the more militant Black Organization of Students (BOS), and became an active leader. She graduated in 1970 with a political science degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-Newark, and in 1985 completed her law degree at Seton Hall Law School. She served as General Counsel for the University Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) before going into private practice and has received numerous awards and honors for her dedicated service in law and policy. She presently serves on the Boards of Leadership Newark, New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, New Jersey Women and AIDS Network, the Garden State Bar Association, and is past chair of the Community Health Law Project.