Rev. Covert holds degrees in philosophy and theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1982) and Western Illinois University (1984). Raised in a Unitarian family, he has been committed to a Pagan path since the early 1990s and has been active in public Neopagan teaching, ritual facilitation, and community building since 1998. He was trained and initiated as a priest in one of the 1734 Witchcraft traditions and was in local and international leadership in ADF until he left the organization in 2005, starting his independent teaching and liturgical project, The Druid Academy. Founding FoDLA in 2006 represents the culmination of his ongoing passion to integrate the lessons of the work by the reconstructionist Pagan community to develop meaningful theories about ancient Druid practice with the cultural realities of 21st century North American life. Professionally, Rev. Covert has many years experience in nonprofit governance, having led such diverse organizations as the Celtic Arts Center, the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, the Lowcountry Players of South Carolina, and the Electric Lodge, a solar powered performing arts center in Venice, California. He was married in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2003 and he and his wife, Liz, live in Sherman Oaks, California.