Elected Office: State Representative—District 24
Candidate for: State Representative—District 24
Born and raised in the Homewood area of Pittsburgh, Martell Covington serves as a legislative aide to Democratic Leader, Pennsylvania State Senator Jay Costa. Martell’s family founded Community Empowerment Association (CEA), a culturally targeted social service organization with over twenty-five years of service to the east side of Pittsburgh. Martell grew up involved in CEA’s activities, leading him to develop, and later leverage, long standing grassroots relationships and community organizing skills to advocate for the people in Homewood and surrounding communities.
Martell worked 8 years for Community Empowerment Association in multiple positions. He managed special events while serving as Program Coordinator of the African American Leadership Institute. Later becoming Assistant Director of Youth & Family Services, he supervised out-of-school time & Saturday University programming as well as Kamp Kuumba summer camp. Martell coordinated Community Empowerment’s Pittsburgh Black Family Reunion & Cultural Arts Weekend for 12 years.
Through his work in the office of Senator Costa, Martell worked as part of the Oakland Business Improvement District Strategic Plan Leadership Team, Oakland Plan Equity Technical Advisory Group, Oakland Plan Steering Committee, Penn Hills Education Foundation, Penn Hills Library Foundation and the Black Equity Coalition’s Policy Working Group.
Martell is the founder and president of the newly formed Black Viking Alumni Society of Central Catholic, a football and softball coach with Homewood Community Sports for over 5 years & director of the “Living While Black (LWB)” YouTube series. He is a United States-based board member of Open Field International, a youth soccer leadership development organization working in Cameroon, West Africa and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Martell is currently Board Chair for Community Empowerment Association and most recently joined the Kelly Strayhorn Theater Board of Directors.
In July of 2021, Martell was elected as Vice President for the Young Democrats of Allegheny County where he currently still serves.
Martell plans to follow in the footsteps of grassroots leaders and visionaries of his time and the generations before him. He plans to continue the vision of those we lost in the streets. Martell is intent on listening deeply to the assets and concerns of community members in order to design concrete next steps and knowledge of how to move forward.
