Melva T. Covington, M.P.H., M.B.A., Ph.D.

Dr. Covington is an executive leader with expertise across multiple businesses, skillsets, and therapeutic areas, including Strategic Planning, Real World Evidence, Consumer Marketing, Community Engagement and Development, and Health Policy. She has strategic and operational expertise across a range of disciplines in the areas of healthcare, education, and social services. Melva currently serves as Founder and Managing Director of AGAPE Strategic Solutions of Maryland and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of People Empowering People for Inclusion Now (PEP!IN). These companies focus on providing evidence-based research, recruitment, engagement, and technology solutions to increase the representation of those historically underrepresented and empower them to make informed and impactful decisions. 

Her core competency focuses on gathering insight for execution through needs assessments, gap analyses, survey design, observational analysis, customer engagement models, recruitment strategies, and performance metrics. This puts her in a unique position to leverage data for social impact across diverse communities and constituencies. 

Melva is also an active leader in the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA), where she served as President of the Greater Washington Metro Chapter in the Mid-Atlantic Region from 2022-2026. She was honored to receive the HBA Everest Award in 2023 and 2025; the Marie Curie Award in 2024; and, most recently in 2026, the Chapter Leader Achievement Award for growing the chapter, programs, and its volunteer leaders. 

Relative to her community-based endeavors, Dr. Covington has served for 10 years as Senior Pastor of The Abundant Life Bible Church, Inc., and Vice-President of its non-profit arm, Abundant Life Ministries, Inc., located in Hyattsville, MD. She works tirelessly in local communities, nationally in the US, and globally to provide training, education, and counseling services for people in need and faith-based organizations. She is skilled in providing strategic planning consultation, cultural competence training, trauma intervention, community action planning, engagement techniques, and performance measurement within diverse communities. She uses her skills and expertise to build the core competencies and engagement of community organizations to help them co-create research and increase knowledge capacities to function better and remain sustainable in resource-constrained environments. 

Melva earned her bachelor’s from The Catholic University of America, Master of Public Health and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MBA from Cornell University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, authored numerous publications, and is an avid public speaker. 

Melva is not afraid of taking risks. She boldly seeks to find meaningful answers that address healthcare disparities and improve the well-being for all consumers in the ecosystem.