Fran Morales is the newest member of the Ahora San Luis team. A passion for journalism, Fran has worked for several newspapers and TV stations in Connecticut.
A Connecticut native and UCONN alumni, Fran recently served as the Marketing and Promotions Coordinator for Telemundo Hartford/Springfield (a Spanish-language Television Network). Fran takes pride in her role in actively writing well-informed news stories and scripts as well as co-producing commercials with social, educational and personal information.
In the nearly two years that Fran worked with Telemundo Hartford/Springfield, her team launched a regional website, holaciudad! (holaciudad.com), in which she managed — and translated into Spanish — daily local content and wrote Telemundo-related stories that reached local and national audiences. Fran was also responsible for developing and executing social media strategies as well as producing and editing commercials and digital shorts, updating content, photos, and videos for holaciudad! and other social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter. Through these efforts, Telemundo Hartford/Springfield has become the premiere Spanish-Language media leader in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.
Although she recently worked in marketing and promotions, the bulk of her experience is in Connecticut’s newspapers. As a reporter for the Norwich Bulletin, Fran covered a story about a Chinese man who was the victim of a hit-and-run along Route 32, the site of many pedestrian accidents in Montville, Connecticut. The story took a sad turn when — despite all efforts to bring his daughter from China, even with help from State Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District — the U.S. Consulate in China refused to give her a visa saying she didn’t qualify. Hai Hong Liu never got to see her father before he died, nor was she allowed attend his funeral here in the U.S. Fran was also the Education Reporter for the New Britain Herald where she delivered local news stories on Central Connecticut State University’s academic and student issues that affected campus life, including breaking news stories on discrimination issues on campus. Fran continually tries to challenge herself as a reporter, actively tackling difficult news stories.
Fran is currently wrapping up her last year of graduate studies at Webster University’s Communication Management Program. A Yankees fan, Fran is recently married to a wonderful Kirkwoodian, Matthew Neufeld, who is the Managing Director for Metro Theater Company.
