New York City Metropolitan Area
★ For various affairs, I read all emails and usually respond: [email protected] Lover of print newspapers, small and local businesses, fun stories and good chaos — usually. Messenger of news, information and stories to tell — especially in regard to endowments, foundations as well as emerging and diverse investment managers. Long-form feature and profile enthusiast by upbringing and training. Proud product of the New York City public school system. Long-time resident of the New York City borough of Queens. Advocate for student-produced journalism. I was almost a teacher, by the way — but down the line, I’ll hopefully become an adjunct someday! If you’re involved in student journalism and want to connect, don't hesitate to reach out. Same note but for folks from the Baruch College community — my pride will always be the labor of love that is The Ticker's business section. “When art is shaped around the audience, rather than the heart of the artist, it loses its soul.” ＊＊＊ Specialties: General business, financial, diversity and nonprofit news writing and research, feature and profile writing, (copy) editing. Candid photography, illustration. Mentorship. Being myself. Three random things I like to start a conversation: Japanese hanakotoba, American sitcoms from the 1960s and 1970s, and unusual historical facts (if not reading about post-WW2 U.S. history). Shortlink for other pages to checkout: https://carylannefrancia.com/switchboard/
Head's up, folks: it’s only intermission! While I tend to personal business during summer 2026, I'll be writing where and when I can — and continuing source meetings and calls. I'll also be visiting some private foundations and university investment offices around North America — I mean, I sat in an endowment/investment management course at Drexel University. It’s not easy to pry me from an academic setting! Reach out to [email protected] as needed, or just DM me on LinkedIn. Past as well as upcoming commitments for writing or production affairs: Morningstar, Scholastic, Nonprofit Quarterly and Move Over Bob magazine. Outside of news organizations and publishers, perhaps the most unusual thing I'd note is that I assisted RareAudreyHepburn.com's Meghan Friedlander with Japanese-language articles for the writing of "Audrey Hepburn in Paris," her 2024 biography on the actress. You'll find name at the end of the book. I've translated articles and consulted for her in the past few years.
In a beat that I had the honor of building on my own, I wrote about institutional investing within endowments and foundations. I also wrote about emerging and diverse managers — which is something that overlaps well with these asset owners in particular. What I did: ※ Cover people moves on leaders at E&Fs, E/D managers and related businesses — like investment consultants and outsourced CIOs that work within these spaces. ※ Write features highlighting industry trends. ※ Interview leading investment professionals at E&Fs, and write about what’s on their minds and how they’re investing — a.k.a., CIO profiles. These folks included Texas Permanent School Fund's Robert Borden, Knight Foundation's Rebecca Carland and Wesleyan University's Anne Martin. ※ In profiles, spotlight small, new, emerging and/or diverse asset management firms — we didn't have a definition for emerging manager, so we kept it flexible. Some folks I've interviewed on this front include Nicole Musicco, Ian Fowler, Deborah La Franchi and the two co-founders of HMC spinout Evolution Credit Partners. ※ And other related spot news, like searches and hires. I've written about an allocators or managers is buying a stake in businesses. I also covered conferences related to emerging managers and MWBE service providers — as NYSTRS would say. Outside E&Fs and E/DMs, I also contributed features on the subjects of diversity, equity and inclusion; sustainable investing and proxy-voting trends; workplace culture; and talent attraction and retention. I'm out and about for new but familiar adventures, but much love to Julie Tatge, Kevin Olsen and Colette Jordan for being the best editors and mentors I'll ever know. Additional love to Tammy Scholtes, Erin Arvedlund, Meaghan Offerman, Douglas Appell, Arleen Jacobius, Rob Kozlowski, Margarida Correia, Robert Steyer, Palash Ghosh and Telisha Bryan. And outside of P&I: Grace Reyes, Anne Duggan, Tiffany Junkins, Laura Wirick, William Jarvis and Douglas Phillips.
At a BlackRock event, my boss at Morningstar accidentally introduced me to an editor at Pensions & Investments. I said I’d find her an intern among writers and alumni of my college newspaper’s business section, not thinking this editor would ask me for a resume and clips. I wasn’t going to apply at all — because this move seemed very unusual — but a phone call with the Chicago-based editor who’s currently my manager is part of the reason why I bothered to try, and eventually said yes. That’s for the record. What I did: ※ Wrote quick hits/briefs from news releases, news conferences and conference panels — that is, when I had the opportunity. ※ Responsible for a majority of the profiles and the longform features pieces for the “Best Places to Work in Money Management” and "Influential Women in Institutional Investing" special reports. ※ Also wrote about diverse managers for annual special report on the top 1,000 largest U.S. retirement plans, institutional use of AI for the annual special report on the largest money mangers, and responsible use of AI for the special report on artificial intelligence. ※ Also wrote about the second annual Trailblazing Women program for the Chicago chapter of NASP, the 35th anniversary gala for the Toigo Foundation, 20th anniversary of ESG and the 2024 proxy season. ※ Solved the Chicago-based editors’ CMS-related tech needs on a temporary basis. ※ Wrote a lot on sustainable investing, diverse/emerging managers, DEI within institutional investing, as well as endowments and foundations — so appreciate anyone who reaches out with leads or ideas. ※ Occasionally a copy editor — more so for BPTW and IWII. Much love to Julie Tatge, Kevin Olsen, Erin Arvedlund, Meaghan Offerman, Colette Jordan, Cheyenne Ligon, Margarida Correia, Robert Steyer, Palash Ghosh, Arleen Jacobius, Kathie O’Donnell, Rob Kozlowski, Douglas Appell and Larry Rothman for the support along the way.
Returned to my old role for one issue and substituting for the current business editor while he was participating in a research project in India pertaining to air pollution.
A continuation of data journalism-driven writing but part time for a short period and with slightly higher pay. Recapped weekly and monthly stock performance and covered dividend stocks. Produced tables and graphs for articles, and spotted bugs in data visualization and data generating systems. Much love to Tom Lauricella, Lauren Solberg, Jakir Hossain, Katherine Lynch, Sarah Hansen, Dan Schindel, Sadhika Thapa, Jülide Sengil, John Rekenthaler, Leslie Norton, Sandy Ward and Sheila Berleman. Their presence meant a lot to me.
The first intern to work with the markets team within Morningstar’s editorial department — which for transparency, is part of what is now Morningstar Wealth. Focused on stock movement, economic reports and corporate news. Also ventured into writing about funds, indexes and dividends. Notably featured upcoming initial public offerings for the next year — I swear, I pitched that after following Cava Group and Oddity Tech’s public debuts. Responsibilities included: ※ Writing articles — and generating traffic — for Morningstar.com. ※ Launching and updating the markets calendar page from July 14 to Sept. 15. Please note that we reused the same page for SEO purposes, so you’ll probably see my name booted from the byline. Page originated from the Markets Brief bottom and was pioneered by former data journalist Jakir Hossain. ※ Using Morningstar Direct, PitchBook and FactSet; sifting through information on corporate investor relations pages and SEC's EDGAR database. ※ Interviewing equity analysts, economists and insightful business professionals for commentary. ※ Producing charts and tables to accompany her own articles, stock strategist pieces, Morningstar’s "Smart Investor" newsletter and more. ※ Compiled analyst comments and data for stock strategist pieces. Name is on the bottom of said articles, “compiled by Caryl Anne Francia.” ※ Identifying bugs and glitches in coded notebooks for generating graphs and data. Helped the Playfair team spot issues and come up with features for their up-and-coming interactive data visualization software. ※ Writing guides for the processes of generating graphs and writing her usual articles since she turned down a full-time associate data journalist job before bestowing her tasks to a successor.
Both regularly assigned and requested last minute to contribute graphics for articles. Used Autodesk Sketchbook and Adobe Illustrator. Most work can be found in Arts & Culture, which required in-house remakes of television or film posters, and the Business, which needed illustrations of business professionals.
Responsibilities included: ※ Coming up with 7-8 pitches/topics for news articles and sending emails listing them ※ Sifting through various news outlets, newsletters and press releases for information in addition to walking around the Flatiron District for news stories ※ Communicating with writers regarding their article deadlines, pitches and production questions ※ Editing and factchecking 11-12 articles for business content and AP Style in at least two rounds ※ Providing feedback to writers and copyeditors, even making a newsletter out of it ※ Participating in editorial meetings ※ Designing the physical print layout for the section via InDesign ※ Coming up with ideas for graphics and photos ※ Interviewing a broad spectrum of business professionals and students for stories ※ Reaching out to business-related academic departments, programs and clubs for information and quotes ※ Volunteering at events that involve promoting the news outlet, such as club fairs and general interest meetings ※ Generating enthusiasm for business writing ... all while on a strict deadline on a weekly basis. I also did these: ※ Updating our database of active writers ※ Contributing news articles and features to all six sections, but most pieces went to Business ※ Producing photos and graphics for all six sections when there were shortages in the photography and graphics departments ※ Copyediting articles for other sections when there were shortages of copy editors, incomplete assignments from the copy editing team and last-minute articles for breaking stories before sending the paper to press ※ Assisting the managing editor with headline writing and proofing the front page ※ Assisting the other section editors with technical issues with InDesign ※ Providing information to people who walk into The Ticker's office ※ Boosting moral during late nights for print production ※ Writing a section-specific guide to Business' history and writing expectations
With New York City's Theatre District re-emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote a weekly review column for shows at Baruch College and at Broadway and off-Broadway venues for the spring 2022 semester and the summer 2022 issue. Also wrote behind-the-scenes previews for Baruch's theatre productions. When the business section became busy, kept active by previewing and reviewing Baruch's productions.