Emily DonovanProfile Photo

Emily Donovan

Co-Founder of Clean Cape Fear

Emily is co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, a grassroots community group which formed in 2017 after learning DuPont/Chemours spent nearly 40 years releasing large quantities of PFAS into the drinking water supply used by over 300,000 NC residents and contaminated over 4,500 private wells near their Fayetteville manufacturing facility. Her work has helped elevate NC's PFAS contamination crisis to the national stage. She has testified before Congress twice regarding PFAS contamination. She created a lobby day effort in Washington, DC for local community members and participated in a Washington Post Live panel discussion with actor Mark Ruffalo and lawyer Rob Bilott. She helped organize and co-host two screenings of the movie, Dark Waters, in Wilmington and Raleigh featuring special guest, Mark Ruffalo--both events resulted in NC's Attorney General suing DuPont/Chemours for natural resource damages and NC's General Assembly filing a historic amount of PFAS bills during the 2021-2022 legislative session. Recently, she helped secure reverse osmosis filling stations for 49 public schools impacted by PFAS contamination in Brunswick and New Hanover counties. She is a member of the leadership team for the National PFAS Contamination Coalition and sits on various community advisory boards and coalitions working to address PFAS contamination. She frequents Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC pressuring lawmakers and regulators for quicker responses to our growing PFAS public health crisis.

Emily is also the Communications Coordinator at St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) located in Wilmington. She is a strong public advocate for social justice issues and regularly partners with community organizations to influence public policy that adversely impacts the "least of these" [Matthew 25: 44-45]. Prior to her ministry calling, she spent nine years in marketing communications working for a Global Fortune 500 company where she regularly traveled the world implementing marketing strategies.

Creative marketing and communications leader with over 20 years experience in direct, electronic, social and channel marketing, demonstrated experience in website development and management, social media/email campaigns, domestic and international trade shows, brand building, product marketing, project management, and marketing communications. Highly organized, with the ability to manage multiple projects and meet tight deadlines; combined with a high standard of quality, exemplary communication and presentation skills.

April 9, 2024

UN Calls Out Chemours & DuPont for Extensive PFAS Contamination in th…

In this insightful episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast, host Sean Grady engages in a compelling dialogue with Emily Donovan , co-founder of Clean Cape Fear , about their ongoing battle against PFAS pollution i...

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May 2, 2023

PFAS Contamination Update with Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donav…

PFAS Contamination Update with Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donavan . Learn about the recent TSCA court ruling where four community groups petitioned the US EPA to require Chemours to conduct epidemiology studies that inc...

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Feb. 21, 2022

Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donovan talks about their efforts to…

Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donovan talks about their efforts to address PFAS contamination in their community. We touch on recent efforts to get the US EPA to require epidemiology sampling of impacted residents and what...

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