Graduating from the University of North Texas with a BA in mathematics in 1975, Ms. Covey entered into Southwestern Bell Telephone Company's Management Training program as a Telephone Engineer. While employed there, she completed her MS at the University of Texas at Dallas in management and administrative sciences.

Ms. Covey started working for Ames Laboratory in 1989 in its Fossil Energy Program. In 1992, she accepted a position managing the Intellectual Property Office, and over the ensuing years, began negotiating CRADA and WFO Agreements. She is presently an Associate Laboratory Director overseeing technology transfer activities, export control and Laboratory planning activities and serves on the Laboratory's Executive Council.

Ms. Covey served as a FLC Executive Board member at large in 2002-2004 and as Deputy Coordinator for the Mid-Continent region in 2005-2007, and is assuming the Mid-Continent's Deputy Coordinator position at this meeting. She was elected Recording Secretary for the DOE Technology Transfer Working Group in 2008 and will assume that position again for FY2010. In addition to these activities, she has served as a member of Iowa State University's Committee on Women, and helped draft the Children in the Workforce Policy and the Export Control Policy for Iowa State University.