Bonavita joined the LANL Foundation in 2024. She brings over 35 years of expertise in secondary and post-secondary education. As the C3P Equitable Access Projects Manager, Bonavita supports the C3P Program in coordinating and aligning funding, organizations, people and data to expand and improve access to college, career and community pathway opportunities for Native American and other underrepresented youth and young adults in Northern New Mexico.
Prior to joining the Foundation, she spent the last 30+ years in educational leadership roles both in California and New Mexico. She spent 18 years in administration, as Dean of Student Services, department chair and tenured Spanish language faculty for Riverside Community College District in Riverside California. Upon her retirement in 2018 from the California Community College system after 27+ years of working in colleges in Central and Southern California, Bonavita and her husband Tracy returned home to Taos.
Dr. Quinto earned a Bachelor of Arts (Double Major in Communicative Disorders and Spanish) in 1986 and a Master of Arts in Spanish in 1988 from UNM in Albuquerque. She returned to New Mexico in 1997 to earn her Ph.D. in Educational Administration as a Kellog Fellow at New Mexico State University. Her dissertation focused on Latina Leadership in upper-level administrative posts in community colleges in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas.
Because of her passion for education, Bonavita wanted to give back to the Northern New Mexico community that molded her and upon her return to New Mexico, worked for UNM-Taos as the Dual Credit Coordinator from 2018-2021. Then from August 2021- December 2023, Bonavita worked as the District Student and Family Engagement Coordinator for the Peñasco Independent School District. She returned to work in Taos in December 2023 to be closer to her elderly parents and worked as the District SEL Coordinator for Taos Municipal Schools.
Bonavita, her husband Tracy and their faithful companion Milo (German shepherd labrador mix) are grateful for the opportunity to have built a home on the mesa in Ranchos de Taos, multigenerational land with a legacy of farming, maintaining the acequia and honoring all the people and cultures that have called it home.