​LuElla D'Amico is Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She is an author, speaker, and educator whose work explores children's literature, the Catholic imagination, women's writing, early American literature, and the enduring power of stories to deepen faith, cultivate virtue, and enrich the moral imagination.

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She is the author of Wondrous Reading: Encountering the Catholic Faith through Children's Literature (Cascade Books), which invites parents, educators, and church communities to rediscover classic and contemporary children's books as companions in faith formation. She is also co-author (with Gregory Eiselein) of the forthcoming Stoic Joy and Its American Heroines and has edited three scholarly collections on girls' literature, including Beyond Nancy Drew: U.S. Girls' Series Fiction in the Twentieth Century.

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Beyond the classroom, LuElla is a Contributing Writer for The Dispatch and writes regularly for a broad public audience about literature, Catholicism, education, feminism, and popular culture. Her essays have also appeared in Church Life Journal, America, Front Porch Republic, Busted Halo, and other publications. Whether reflecting on Little Women, True Grit, The Devil Wears Prada, children's classics, or contemporary culture, she enjoys helping readers discover how great stories illuminate timeless questions about faith, vocation, family, and the good life.

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At the University of the Incarnate Word, LuElla directs Artful Worship: Inspiring Children's Faith Through the Catholic Imagination, a Lilly Endowment–funded initiative that partners with schools, parishes, artists, and educators to help children encounter the beauty of the Christian tradition through literature, storytelling, music, and the arts. She also serves on the national board of the Lilly Network, collaborating with leaders from church-related colleges and universities to strengthen vocation and mission in higher education.

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An engaging speaker, LuElla has presented for universities, schools, parishes, homeschooling communities, reading groups, and conferences on topics including children's literature, storytelling, the Catholic imagination, women's writing, vocational discernment, education, and the literary classics. She believes the best stories not only entertain us—they invite us to see the world more clearly and encourage us to live with courage, hope, joy, and charity.

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LuElla lives in Texas with her husband and their two children. Her work is grounded in the conviction that literature is not simply something we study: it is something that helps us love God, understand one another, and live more fully human lives.