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.