Rapid Accountability Diversion Program Manager Tonya Covington

Tonya Covington is a Trainer, Mediator, Community Health Worker and Health Educator. Tonya has been engaged in training, consulting and coaching on issues of diversity, equity and cross cultural communication for three decades and is an experienced “cultural humility” trainer. She has skills in coalition building, program implementation, capacity building, facilitation, mediation and conflict resolution, development and consensus building. Tonya has conducted workshops and lectured on the subject of Cultural Humility across the country and abroad. Tonya was also instrumental in establishing the first Anti-Racism Day at the New Mexico Legislature.

Covington was the Director of Conflict Resolution at Outcomes, Inc. Previously, she has experience with APS’ Restorative Justice program and has worked as a mediator with the Metropolitan Court and the Thirteenth Judicial District Court. She has been a Community Health Worker with the New Mexico Shared Strategic Plan Leadership Committee, the African American Health Network, the Native American Partnership, Project HOPE, and the New Mexico Health Equity Working Group, where she chaired the Deconstructing Racism Committee, as well as a Racial Justice Coordinator with the YWCA of the Middle Rio Grande.

Currently, she is the Director of the Albuquerque Police Department’s Rapid Accountability Diversion (RAD) Program. RAD is a diversion program designed to end the pipeline that escalates first-time offenders into lifelong criminals. It will be limited to qualified, low-level, infrequent offenders, including youth, giving them the opportunity to participate in rehabilitative programs.