EXCOM Member

David Covington serves as CEO and president of RI International, is an owner of Behavioral Health Link, and leads the international initiatives Crisis Now and Zero Suicide. He is a two-time national winner of the Council of State Governments Innovations Award, in 2008 with the Georgia Crisis & Access Line and again in 2012 with Magellan Health. For five consecutive years, he competed as a national finalist in innovations award competitions, including Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government in 2009. He has also been featured in Business Week magazine.

He is an acclaimed global speaker with top-ranked TED-style talks and conference keynotes. In 2015, readers of his healthcare innovation blog at davidcovington.com represented 90 different countries. Previously he served as vice president at Magellan Health, where he was responsible for the administrative, clinical, financial, and programmatic operations of the $750-million-per-year integrated health plan contract with Arizona Medicaid and the Department of Health Services.

Mr. Covington has served as a member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention since it was created in 2010, co-chairing task forces on clinical care and crisis services. He has served as vice chair of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline SAMHSA steering committee since it was created in 2005 and as the clinical division chair of the American Association of Suicidology since 2014. He served on the National Council for Behavioral Health board of directors from 2011 to 2014 and the Relias Learning Behavioral Health Advisory Board from 2014 to 2016.

Mr. Covington’s behavioral healthcare management history also includes CEO of Behavioral Health Link and director of Public Sector Quality Management at APS Healthcare. He is a licensed professional counselor and has an M.B.A. from Kennesaw State and a master of science from the University of Memphis. He has been fortunate to lead many award-winning, innovative projects, including suicide care; performance management dashboards; integrated care; peer supports; and data analytics/software solutions. His behavioral health care management history also includes CEO of Behavioral Health Link and Director of Public Sector Quality Management at APS Healthcare.