Danielle Ridolfi teaches a wide range of courses that align with her dual specialties in children's studies as well as illustration and visual cultural studies. She is a lecturer in both the English Department and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. She teaches courses in the Children's Studies Minor focused on the critical study of children's visual media, including Children's Picturebooks: Culture and Content, and Children's Publishing: History, Context, and Craft. She also teaches the Interdisciplinary Introduction to Children's Studies course. In the Sam Fox School, she teaches studio classes on narrative and picturebook illustration. She holds an MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University.
In her studio practice, Ridolfi is an author-illustrator of children's picture books. Her debut picture book, When the Dark Clouds Come, has been acquired for publication by Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, and will reach market in 2025. She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. In her work, she utilizes image-making processes, particularly collage, that are contingent upon close interactions with the natural and material world. She creates illustrations that serve as archives of objects, memories, and places, and help young readers more deeply connect with their surroundings. Ridolfi also spent several years in the design industry working at St. Louis-based agencies and design studios, and has an interest in the way that typography, composition, and the interaction between word and image can enhance the reading experience.
Ridolfi's scholarly writing and research exist at the intersection between illustration, early childhood pedagogy, and material culture. Her background as a clinical psychologist specializing in the impact of sociocultural factors, like media images and advertisements, on children and young adults drives many of her inquiries. She is interested in exploring the educational use of pictures and picturebooks in early childhood pedagogy, the history and cultural legacy of the picturebook, and the ways that illustrated children's media has historically perpetuated racism and othering of marginalized children. Her scholarly writing and essays have been featured in Uppercase, The Common Reader, and The Journal of Illustration.