Mary Lou Bozza is the eldest of her generation in a welcoming, food-loving Irish-Italian family from Connecticut. After beginning Boston College as a chemistry major, she graduated with a degree in Theology and Hispanic Studies. Her senior thesis about Dorothy Day is part of the Dorothy Day archives at Marquette University. 

Following graduation, she taught high school theology and urban studies as a Jesuit Alumni Volunteer in Chicago before pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Yale Divinity School. While at YDS, Mary Lou led the Catholic student group, served as a chapel minister for the daily ecumenical chapel, and was a research assistant for Margaret Farley, RSM. 

She later served as a Campus Minister and Theology instructor at St. Louis University, International Relations and Delegations Coordinator at FUNDAHMER in El Salvador, and Director of Confirmation and Youth Ministry at Good Shepherd Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts. 

Mary Lou is currently the Director of Development at Haley House, a feisty Boston non-profit founded in the Catholic Worker Tradition which includes a soup kitchen, affordable housing, an urban farm, and a social enterprise cafe employing people returning from incarceration. She is also a founding member of FACES (Faith in Action with El Salvador), a U.S. non-profit established to support community organizations in El Salvador. Mary Lou's writing has been published by Liguori Press, various Catholic newspapers, and in a collection of essays about feminism and faith.