Dee Bonnick

Parent Consultant

Dee Bonnick has been a National Lived Experience Integration Subject Matter Expert and a Race Equity Social Justice Consultant for the past ten years. Some of her work has included, co-leading the development of the Family Empowerment and Leadership Academy curriculum (FELA), serving as a subject matter expert for the Quality Contact Visits Product Suites, Congregate Care Product Development Brief & Levels of Prevention Product Development Brief and Race Equity Product Briefs. She’s a member of National Race Equity, CQI and Knowledge Management teams.

Dee has also served as a Subject Matter Expert Consultant in Tailored Services delivery work in New Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Rhode Island to support the implementation of family and youth engagement infrastructures including developing parent stakeholder advisory groups and lifting up race equity and justice work in child welfare. She’s the former lead of the Family Leaders in Child Welfare Constituency Group. Dee is also a part of the New England Regional Learning Collaborative where she leads the work on improving parent engagement and partnership with a race equity and justice lens when transforming the front door of child welfare.

Dee is a lived-experience partner with the National Partnership for Child Safety. She is also a part of the Casey Family Services Well-Being Measures Workgroup. She is a member of the HOPE Family and Community Experts Council (FACEs). She is a member of National Steering Committee for the BEST Youth Initiative. Dee is a member of the core team for a national investigation research project and a member of the Doris Duke Foundation Prevention Initiative with Think of Us and the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance. Dee is also a member of the Birth Parent National Network (BPNN) and the Birth and Foster Parent Partnership (BFPP) with the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance.

Dee’s lived and professional experience in child welfare spans most of her life. She grew up in kinship care with a grandmother who fostered and adopted children. Dee is a mother of three, who has had direct experience with her local child welfare agency when seeking support and resources for her son who needed help for his mental and behavioral health. From that experience, Dee has gone on to become a parent consultant in child welfare in her home state of Connecticut for over ten years. She was a Family Advocacy Specialist Supervisor for a statewide, non-profit organization for children’s behavioral health.

Dee has vast experience in training, coaching, facilitation, public speaking and project management. She has worked on numerous projects, trainings and workshops to improve family engagement, partnership and leadership and continues to champion for equity and social justice in marginalized communities. Currently, she is an Education Consultant for the past 11 years with Connecticut State Department of Education which specializes in Special Education Law to advocate for youth who are under the guardianship of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families. Dee has an extensive background in the field of mental and behavioral health as well as macro-level systems change work. Dee holds a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Southern Connecticut State University and a Master’s in Social Work from New York University, where she was the 2017 Silver School of Social Work, Social Justice Award recipient.