Natalie Bonfine, Ph.D.

Natalie Bonfine, Ph.D. is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). Dr. Bonfine graduated from Kent State University in May 2013 with her Ph.D. in Sociology with an emphasis in the sociology of mental health and illness and medical sociology. Dr. Bonfine is the site Director for the University Hospitals-NEOMED Health Services Research Collaborative. Dr. Bonfine’s primary area of research involves examining the overrepresentation of people with mental illness in the criminal legal system and the impact of this phenomenon at both the individual and system levels. She studies jail diversion alternatives for people with severe mental illness who may become involved in the criminal legal system. She is also interested in interdisciplinary and cross-systems collaboration and coordination of care, services and responses to meet the multiple and complex clinical and social needs of people with mental illness.