Representative Susan R. Donovan
Chair, House Health and Human Services Committee
Member, House Oversight Committee
Member, House Education 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 the chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee in January 2023. Representative Donovan is also a member of the House Oversight Committee, 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 was the sponsor of a law that boosts 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. She backs many measures to help seniors, including a new law that
streamlines the SNAP application process for those 60 and older.
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. In 2022, she cosponsored laws aimed at accelerating Rhode Island’s shift toward
renewably sourced electricity, reducing waste from
plastic shopping bags and
banning toxic PFAS chemicals from food packaging.
Representative Donovan is a retired public school teacher. In 2007, she earned the Governor’s Award for Wellness Innovation in the school category, and in 2008, she was named Bristol Warren Teacher of the Year. She worked as an education consultant at the Brown University Institute of Community Health Promotion. She was a founding member and past chair of the East Bay of Rhode Island Habitat for Humanity Chapter, which has since merged with the Greater Providence chapter. She is a board member and education coordinator for the environmental organization Save Bristol Harbor, which fought the transport of LNG through Narragansett Bay.
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.