Representative Joseline Pena-Melnyk Contact information

Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk (née Peña, born June 27, 1966) is an American politician who represents District 21 in the Maryland House of Delegates. She was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York with her mother and sister when she was eight years old. She helped with translation services for her mother and other Spanish-speaking families in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood.

Peña moved out after a disagreement with her mother, staying with friends and renting a room during her last few months at John F. Kennedy High School. She later attended Buffalo State College, paying her way through school with a series of retail jobs and by volunteering at a shelter for battered women before graduating with a B.S. in criminal justice. She later graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree. Peña was the first in her family to achieve a college degree.

After law school, Peña started her legal career in the public defender’s office in Philadelphia before moving to Washington, D.C., to join her then-fiance Markian Melnyk after failing the bar exam. She later passed the test in 1993 and became a court-appointed defense attorney, advocating for foster children and abused children in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Peña-Melnyk later joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor before leaving the practice after the birth of her first child in 1999. She continued to be active in public life, joining the board of CASA de Maryland and winning a seat on the College Park City Council in 2003.

Peña-Melnyk has been a member of the House Health and Government Operations Committee since she assumed office in 2007. She has served on the Public Health and Long Term Care, Government Operations & Long Term Care, Insurance and Pharmaceuticals, and Public Health and Minority Health Disparities subcommittees. In 2022, she was appointed Chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee, becoming the highest-ranking Latina in the history of the General Assembly.

She unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives in 2016, coming in third behind Anthony Brown and Glenn Ivey. Despite this setback, Delegate Peña-Melnyk is a seasoned legislator with an impressive track record, having sponsored over 80 bills that became law. She is a leader in health policy in the state, leading on important issues such as opioid use disorders, health care access, housing protections, the regulation of cannabis, and minority health disparities.