About
Francesca Donlan is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist turned travel PR exec and adjunct professor. She created and taught the first course around kindness called “The Kindness Effect” at Florida Gulf Coast University. She recently left corporate life to teach the Kindness Effect to a broader audience. Francesca holds a M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri and a B.A. in psychology from Rutgers University.
Francesca has spoken at a variety of schools, clubs and senior living communities including North American Journalists Travel Association, University of Rhode Island, Salve Regina University, St. George’s school, The Naval War College, TeamFame at International Tennis Hall of Fame, Providence Library, Fort Myers Leadership, Pelican Preserve community, Buccaneer Estates and Magnolia Landing Golf & Country Club.
She currently resides in Newport, Rhode Island.
The kindness effect
She continues to speak about the science and research around kindness to a myriad of schools and organizations. She is passionate about kindness and how it has the power to change our community, ourselves and our world.
KINDNESS pRESENTATIONS
KINDNESS IN THE CLASSROOM
Kindness Press
The Kindness Effect class was featured on the cover of the Florida Gulf Coast University 360 Magazine.
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Francesca speaks to NBC's Story2Share about the impact of kindness on her class at FGCU.
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NBC's Story2Share returned to The Kindness Effect class at FGCU to see how students coped with kindness during Covid.
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CBS Wink TV films a segment on The Kindness Effect class about it's mission to help seniors during Covid.
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Francesca speaks with Southwest Florida Strong Podcast from CONRIC pr + marketing about the impact of kindness on Southwest Florida.
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Tonya Fitzpatrick, co-Founder of World Footprints, LLC, a socially conscious travel media platform interviews Francesca on the topic of kindness during Covid.
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CBS Wink TV produce a news segment about how Kindness Effect students helped the community.
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Broadway show Come From Away intersects with FGCU Kindness Effect class.
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Francesca shares some stories from class on the power of kindness with a group from FGCU's Roots of Compassion & Kindness.
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Francesca writes an essay on self compassion and lessons learned during Kindness Effect class.
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Tourism MEDIA
After an extensive red tide event in Lee County, Florida, Francesca hosted live radio and television broadcasts to assure the public that the beaches ready for visitors.
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Francesca spoke to a crowd of journalists and consumers about Lee County's resurgence post red tide and hurricane events.
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Francesca met with Christopher Bollen for this front page feature about Newport, RI in Conde Nast Traveler.
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Francesca worked with journalist Ali Wunderman for this feature about Newport in The Washington Post.
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Newspaper Articles
TEA PARTIES WITH ANGELS - The Pulitzer Prize nominated true story of a remarkable Cape Coral girl and her relationship with angels.
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Best of Gannett and Society of Professional Journalists award for this six-part series covering two roommates challenged with different eating disorders and their attempts to help each other.
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Pulitzer Prize nomination for multi-media collaboration. Best of Gannett and Society of Professional Journalists First Place award for series on the life and death of a Fort Myers boy with a very special wish.
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The "Summer of Hunger" series took top award in Multi Media Storytelling for Excellence in Feature Writing by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors.
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Almost 600 Lee County fifth-graders learned to twirl, swing, curtsy and take a bow as part of Dancing Classrooms. Between the beats of the music and the challenging choreography, they learned profound life lessons.
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The weekly column, The Up Beat, ran in The News-Press, a Gannett newspaper in Fort Myers, Fla. for three years and focused on the sunnier side of life.
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