Joseline Peña-Melnyk

Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk (née Peña, born June 27, 1966) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 109th speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented the 21st district since 2007.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Peña-Melnyk immigrated to New York with her family when she was eight years old. She graduated from Buffalo State College and the State University of New York at Buffalo, afterwards starting her law career in the Defender Association of Philadelphia before moving to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office. Peña-Melnyk was elected to the city council of College Park, Maryland, in 2003 and to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2006. She unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland's 4th congressional district in 2016, coming in third behind Anthony Brown and Glenn Ivey.

In December 2025, after Adrienne A. Jones announced that she would step down as speaker, Peña-Melnyk was unanimously elected to succeed her. She is the first Afro-Latina and second woman, after Jones, to lead the Maryland House of Delegates.