Representative Susan R. Donovan

Deputy Majority Leader

Second Vice Chair, House Health and Human Services Committee

Member, House Education Committee

Member, House Oversight Committee

Member, House Veterans' Affairs Committee

Susan Donovan (D) has represented District 69 in Bristol and Portsmouth since first being elected in November 2016. She was named a Deputy Majority Leader in January 2021. Representative Donovan is the second vice chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of the House Oversight Committee, including serving as chair of that committee’s Aging and Senior Services Subcommittee. She is also a member of the House Education Committee and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

She was the sponsor of major legislation in 2021 to ensure pay equity for all employees, regardless of gender or ethnicity. She has sponsored or cosponsored many environmental measures, including a bill passed in 2021 to prevent litter, animal harm and costly power outages by banning the intentional release of groups of balloons outdoors. She was the sponsor of a new law that will boost the use of electronic medical records and another to allow patients to protect their privacy by having their health care mailings directed to themselves instead of a spouse or parent. She has sponsored or cosponsored numerous bills to improve the lives of children and families, including a law to help ensure effectiveness of Child Opportunity Zones and another that bans conversion therapy for minors.​

Representative Donovan is a retired public school teacher and, in 2008 was named Bristol Warren Teacher of the Year. She worked as an education consultant at the Brown University Institute of Community Health Promotion. She is chair and a founding member of the East Bay of Rhode Island Habitat for Humanity Chapter and board member and education coordinator of the environmental organization Save Bristol Harbor, which fought the transport of LNG through Narragansett Bay. She was the recording secretary of the Bristol Democratic Town Committee and is a member of the Bristol Rotary Club. In addition to her other activities, Representative Donovan serves as a choir and past vestry member of St. Michael’s Church in Bristol.​

Representative Donovan earned a B.S. in health and physical education as well as a Master’s degree in school administration from Rhode Island College. She lives in Bristol with her husband, Glenn. They have three adult children: Colleen, Cara (Jonathan Mitchell) and Glenn (Erin) and four grandchildren, all of whom reside in Bristol.