Jennifer Donnals
Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Donnals is chief operating officer of The Adoption Project. Jennifer is an adoptive parent and has long been a strong advocate for adoptive families.
A public service and communications professional with 30 years of experience, Jennifer most recently served as chief of staff for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services where she helped build coalitions and partnerships to support foster and adoptive families while overseeing the department's communications, legislative, administrative and continuous quality improvement divisions.
Prior to joining DCS, Jennifer served as former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's director of communications and press secretary. In these roles, Jennifer worked with local, state and national press to communicate the governor’s legislative and policy agendas, including the Drive to 55 campaign to increase the number of Tennesseans with post-secondary degrees and TN Fosters, a collaborative initiative to increase the number of foster homes across the state.
Jennifer also previously served as communications director for the Tennessee Secretary of State, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and the Shelby County (Memphis) District Attorney's Office.
With a career that started in broadcast journalism, Jennifer worked for 10 years as a television news producer in Ohio, Alabama and Tennessee. She won a Regional Emmy Award in the best newscast category as executive producer at WMC-TV in Memphis, and has received several Associated Press Broadcasters awards.
Donnals earned a B.S. in Communications from Ohio University. She lives in Nashville with her husband Brett and their daughter Hallie.