Author
National award-winning author of psychology memoirs and the young adult Desert of Dreams Series. Member of the California Writers Club and Southern California Writers Association.
Speaking
Amanda LaPera is an award-winning author, educator, and mental health advocate available for virtual and in-person speaking engagements.
A credible voice for complex conversations.
Amanda brings together lived family experience, award-winning memoir, classroom experience, mental health advocacy, and fiction rooted in trauma, resilience, courage, and hope.
Educator
English teacher with classroom experience helping students think deeply about writing, resilience, story, voice, and purpose.
Advocate
Served ten years on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Orange County Affiliate (CA).
Audience Fit
Organizations need substance, empathy, and clarity.
Universities & Medical Schools
Programs exploring mental health, caregiving, medical humanities, family systems, and memoir, gain understanding of the impact of mental illness on the family unit through narrative case study.
Professional Organizations
Conferences, trainings, events, key note speeches, panel discussions, and workshops on a variety of topics with your purpose in mind.
Libraries, Bookstores & Reader Events
Author talks, book signings, classroom visits, book-club discussions, and community conversations around memoir and fiction.
Speaking Topics
Speaking through Storytelling
Topics can be adapted for professional, academic, community, reader, or classroom audiences.
Mental Illness and the Family
How severe mental illness, anosognosia, caregiving, uncertainty, grief, and hope shape family systems.
Together is Better
How care coordination among providers, family members, and individuals can improve understanding, support, and outcomes.
Who You Are Is Not Who You Will Be
Motivational programs for audiences, including young adults, about resilience, growth, and refusing to let hardship define the future.
Resilience in the Desert of Dreams
Coming-of-age fiction, the California High Desert, and stories of young people finding courage in harsh conditions to overcoming adversity.
Speaker Materials
Speaker Intros and Media Resources
Media-kit materials, interview resources, sell sheets, and speaker-support materials are available on the Media Kit & Press page.
Presentations may be adapted for 20-minute programs, one-hour talks, or customized event formats.
View Media Kit & PressBooking Contact
Book Amanda to speak.
For speaking availability, event fit, scheduling, and professional booking details, contact Amanda's publicist, Dionne Veselko at Adamo Press.
Please include event date, location or virtual format, audience, topic of interest, expected attendance, and any book-sales or signing details.
Contact Dionne VeselkoSpeaking Experience
Previous Appearances
Presentations for conferences, mental-health organizations, community forums, and school programs, both large and small. Include a book signing at your event.
March 2026
Littlerock High School and Lake Los Angeles School
Guest speaker for Who You Are Today Is Not Who You Will Be, a motivational program for students and staff.
May 2019
Aware & Alert: A Forum on Mental Health of Children and Teens
Panelist and speaker for a community forum hosted by Children's Hospital of Orange County, Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'a lot, and NAMI-OC.
February 2018
Community Presentation of the Annual Conditions of Children Report
Speaker on navigating systems from a parent's perspective on the topics of overcoming systemic barriers and bridging the gaps in care.
2014-2017
NAMI California and NAMI National Conferences
Panelist, and workshop presenter on family experience, care coordination, and mental health in high schools.
2014-2018
Meeting of the Minds Conference
Workshop presenter on family-consumer-provider care coordination and the role of families as an untapped resource.
October 2015
The Gathering on Mental Health and the Church
Speaker for a Saddleback Church-hosted event on helping families cope and support loved ones living with mental illness.
More speaking experience
April 2018
NAMI Orange County Knowledge Forum
Speaker for Together is Better at Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach, California.
August 2017
NAMI California Conference
Panelist and workshop presenter for Mental Health in High Schools.
August 2015
NAMI California Conference
Panelist and workshop presenter for Together is Better: Family-Consumer-Provider Care Coordination.
July 2015
NAMI National Conference
Presenter for Untapped Resources: The Consumer's Family.
July 2014
Fullerton Unitarian Congregation
Featured speaker for The Mentally Ill Patient's Family: An Untapped Resource.
March 2013
Orange County Speakers Bureau
Keynote speaker for The Age 18 Cliff: Dangerously Close to the Edge of Homeless & Incarceration.
Additional Event Formats
Library, school, and community talks.
Amanda also appears for reader-facing and community events, including library talks, classroom visits, book signings, and conversations connected to memoir, fiction, resilience, and hope.
View Events