Grace Drnach-Bonaventura

Dr. Grace Drnach-Bonaventura has experience in leading multiple statewide grant initiatives aimed at advancing the integration of physical and behavioral health care, as well as care coordination, through the implementation and expansion of evidence-based practices across a variety of health care and community settings. In regard to expanding screening services to identify and provide services to those who may be at risk for substance use, she has partnered with health care sites and communities across Pennsylvania to assess organizational readiness to implement evidence-based practices such as SBIRT and MOUD, as well as lead stigma reduction trainings. Additionally, she has developed performance metrics to support continuous, data-driven quality improvement efforts and determine program evaluation methodology and quality assurance protocols. 

Dr. Drnach-Bonaventura is interested in the role education plays in health promotion for community and students, with a focus on women and girls. With a background in maternal and child health, she has co-facilitated education sessions with clinicians tailored to new parents focusing on postpartum depression and child development, with the aim of increasing mental health and well-being for mothers and guardians. Over the past 12 years, she has worked with an international school to increase support and accessibility for girl’s primary education through grant writing for projects identified by the local parent-teacher association, resulting in creating sustainability gardens to reduce school lunch fees, providing safe transportation, and building private bathrooms.

In addition to in-person teaching, Dr. Drnach-Bonaventura has taught online since 2019 and focuses on how to integrate social determinants of health in online coursework. She has published chapters in educational textbooks such as Chapter 11: Civic Engagement in The Business of Physical Therapy and co-authored Chapter 1: Systems-based Approaches for Health Equity in the upcoming book Foundations in Public Health. She is also involved in the CDC Lewis Scholars Program here at Pitt.