Francesca grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, then went on to Princeton University, where she received a BA in chemistry with minors in sustainable energy, environmental studies, and materials science. At Princeton, she studied cobalt-catalyzed C(sp2)-C(sp3) cross-coupling reactions under the direction of Professor Paul Chirik. After graduating, she spent a year at Lund University in Sweden through a Fulbright fellowship. While there, she studied C—H activation in cyclopalladation reactions with PCP pincer ligands as part of Professor Ola Wendt’s lab. Francesca joined the Swager group in the fall of 2024 as a graduate student in the Inorganic Chemistry program.