Dee Bonnick

As a National Family Consultant with the Center since 2015, Dee Bonnick works on developing resources in the areas of family engagement, leadership, and in-home services. Ms. Bonnick also serves as a consultant in tailored service delivery directly to states, where she works to support the implementation of family engagement infrastructure.

Ms. Bonnick was the lead of the Family Leaders in Child Welfare Center peer group, where she used her lived and professional expertise with family engagement to moderate discussions, contribute to program planning, and facilitate peer engagement. Currently, she also serves as Education Consultant with the Connecticut State Department of Education, where she advocates for youth who are under the guardianship of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families.

Ms. Bonnick has both lived and professional experience in child welfare that spans most of her life. She has lived child welfare experience and has worked as a parent consultant in child welfare in her home state of Connecticut for over 10 years. Ms. Bonnick was a family advocacy specialist supervisor for a statewide nonprofit organization for children’s behavioral health and has worked on numerous projects to improve family engagement, partnership, and leadership and continues to champion for equity and social justice in marginalized communities. Ms. Bonnick has an extensive background in the fields of mental and behavioral health, as well as macro-level systems change. She holds a bachelor of social work degree from Southern Connecticut State University and a master of social work from New York University, where she was the 2017 Silver School of Social Work, Social Justice Award recipient.