The New House Speaker: Forged By Poverty, Fueled By Empathy

By Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters

December 17, 2025

When she was a small child growing up in her native Dominican Republic, Joseline Peña-Melnyk would frequently return home from school at midday to find a house packed with relatives, but not a morsel of food.

The Peña family’s home was “tiny,” she recalls, a one-bedroom wooden structure with holes in the roof and a latrine in the yard. She frequently lived with as many as 17 aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. They were too embarrassed to ask the proprietor of the local bodega for food on credit.

Young Joseline had no such qualms.

“I would go to the bodega,” the just-elected speaker of the House of Delegates said in a recent interview. “And I would tell the lady, ‘Muneca, my grandmother said if you can let us fiao’ — it’s a slang term, meaning to buy on credit — ‘can you give us 2 pounds of rice, a pound of beans, and some tomato paste and some cilantro and some salt? My mom, when she sends money, will pay you.’”

The shopkeeper said yes. “And then I would come home and we would eat!”

The story, which Peña-Melnyk tells now with relish, reflects the confidence that has fueled her improbable rise in politics, from election to the College Park City Council at age 37 to her unanimous choice Tuesday as House speaker.

“From early on, I was just fearless,” she told Maryland Matters. “Not ashamed. Not ashamed at all that someone would see me go [to the bodega] after other families had already eaten. So I would do that.”

The future legislator also watched her mother, the oldest of 14 children, labor to provide for her children, siblings and parents. Being around folks who worked hard but struggled to meet even their most basic needs instilled in her a strong sense of compassion.

Peña-Melnyk one step closer to House speaker’s rostrum, history

“I learned to have empathy and to care about the things that really matter,” she said.

Peña-Melnyk first came to New York at age 7 with her mother and sister, before returning to the Dominican Republic at age 11 with her sister, while her mother stayed behind, working jobs in the garment district and sending money home. When she was 14, she returned to the U.S. for good.

Money was always tight. In the DR, her family used corn husks and newspaper for toilet paper. Uncles would pawn small appliances for cash. In New York, they relied on food stamps and other public assistance to supplement her mother’s wages. “We were very, very, very poor, and went through a lot of struggles — but we had a lot of love,” she recalled.

Peña-Melnyk began to learn English in school and from watching “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” When her mother needed help navigating the welfare system, her oldest daughter would help translate, soon translating for other Spanish-speaking mothers.

“[My mother] would volunteer me to translate for everybody that was waiting” in the welfare office, Peña-Melnyk said. “I had no business knowing people’s grown-up business. But what I did learn was that I did not want to be treated like these women — it was mostly women, women of color — were treated. [Clerks] would ask them questions that were really offensive.”

Peña-Melnyk’s mother began to refer to her daughter as “’abogadita,’ which means the little lawyer. I wouldn’t stay quiet…. At that age I knew that I wanted to do something with my life.”

In high school, Peña-Melnyk told her guidance counselor she wanted to go to college, despite having no idea what that meant. She attended Buffalo State College (a school she chose site unseen) and the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School. After a stint as a public defender in Philadelphia, she became a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C.

Law school was “transformational,” said Peña-Melnyk. Working with accused persons who struggled with disadvantaged upbringings became a particular passion. “I was like, ‘Wow, look at this law here. I can apply it. I can try to fight for fairness and justice. And I used the law to back me up — and my mouth. And my grit. [I learned] to leave it all out there.”

Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel). (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

Elected to the House in 2006, she landed on the Health and Government Operations Committee, where she became steeped in issues ranging from abortion to long-term care, same-sex marriage to insurance to the pharmaceuticals industry. She grew close to Del. Shane Pendergrass (D-Howard), the long-serving committee chair whom she succeeded when Pendergrass retired in 2023.

In an interview last week, Pendergrass lavished praise on her former colleague, whom she considers a sister.

“She is the kindest, most generous, smartest and hardest-working person I have ever dealt with,” Pendergrass said. “She was my equal partner when I chaired HGO. I invited her into everything because I needed her help.

“It’s a very big job to be the chair of a committee,” Pendergrass said. “Nothing compared to being the speaker of the House, but still a big job. And I wanted her to be as educated about every issue that she could be so that she could help me make decisions. And she did.”

Peña-Melnyk was always “over-prepared” when it was her turn to defend a committee bill on the floor, Pendergrass recalled. She expects her to approach her role as speaker in the same manner.

The new speaker isn’t afraid to engage in the rough and tumble of politics. She ran against a slate of Democratic incumbents in District 21 in 2006. After publicly criticizing former Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) for not having any Hispanics in her Cabinet, Peña-Melnyk endorsed her rival, David Trone, in the 2024 U.S. Senate primary.

Pendergrass said that when a state senator was killing House bills in large number out of apparent pique, Peña-Melnyk pressed for killing his bills in retribution. Pendergrass resisted at first, but then relented. The unnamed senator got the message, she said.

“She gets politics much more than I did,” Pendergrass said last week.

When Peña-Melnyk became chair of HGO, some Republicans on the panel considered a transfer to a new committee, perhaps concerned that the new boss would be too liberal or not as fair. Pendergrass said that one member — Del. Nik Kipke (R-Anne Arundel) — later stopped her in the hallway.

“We’re really glad we stayed,” Kipke told her. “We really like her. She’s [even] better than you are.”

She’s a liberal, I’m a conservative, but I do believe she is a good person who cares deeply about people — and she has a tremendous work ethic. She’s a workaholic. She’s just trying to get good things done for people.”

– Del. Nik Kipke (R-Anne Arundel), on working with Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel)

Kipke said he and Peña-Melnyk both arrived in Annapolis in 2007, and have served on the same committee the entire time. He estimates they’ve spent thousands of hours together.

“She’s a liberal, I’m a conservative, but I do believe she is a good person who cares deeply about people — and she has a tremendous work ethic. She’s a workaholic,” Kipke said. “She’s just trying to get good things done for people.”

He and Pendergrass both said they could recall numerous times when they overheard Peña-Melnyk on the phone, trying to arrange help for a constituent in need, often someone who didn’t live in her legislative district. “Not all politicians spend their time on those types of issues,” Kipke said.

Kipke said Peña-Melnyk has been particularly helpful expanding access to health care in Republican parts of Maryland.

“We’ve all talked about her being in this role, and the thing I’ve heard over and over again is you feel really welcome to disagree, to share your opinion,” he said. “She’s been very respectful to the Republicans on our committee.”

Pendergrass expects the new speaker to remember “people who have the least and need the most help…. She helps people. That’s who she is.”

Peña-Melnyk said she spent a lot of time in the lead-up to Tuesday’s vote reflecting on the many mentors she’s had over her 59 years — her mother and other relatives, that high school guidance counselor and numerous Annapolis figures, including Pendergrass, former Speaker Adrienne Jones and former lawmakers Shirley Nathan-Pulliam (the first African-Caribbean woman elected to the General Assembly), Peter Hammen, Delores Kelley and Gwendolyn Britt among them.

As one of the first Afro-Latina legislators in the nation to become a presiding officer, at a time when the federal government is targeting immigrants, Peña-Melnyk could become a go-to for national journalists. But she said her focus will remain on Maryland — and conducting herself as she always has, by doing her homework, listening with compassion and searching for consensus.

“I am famous for sitting everyone around a table, and just going around and listening. And I don’t speak,” she said. “After I have listened to everyone attentively, the answer comes to me.

“And I think that I am ready to do a good job — and to learn.”