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. Representative
Donovan backs many measures to help seniors, including a new law she
sponsored that
prohibits private insurance companies from discriminating against
seniors
with pre-existing conditions shopping for Medicare Advantage plans.
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
six grandchildren, all of whom reside in Bristol.