As regular Frunchroom fans (Frunchers?) know, we like to pull in readers from near and far to describe a wealth of South Side experiences. Though our next reader is a native South Sider, she’s definitely traveling the longest distance to be at our show this Tuesday at Beverly Arts Center.

Francine McKenna covers financial regulation and legislation as a reporter in Washington, DC, for MarketWatch, a leading online financial news outlet. McKenna’s work is featured frequently in The Wall Street Journal; her reporting and commentary have also been featured in the Financial Times, Accountancy Age, Reuters, Accountancy Magazine, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Booth Review magazine, and various other financial, media, and technology publications. She was named a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2010 in the online commentary and blogging category and in 2013 in the magazine feature category.

Francine also teaches a course in international business as an adjunct professor for the MBA program at American University’s Kogod School of Business. She recently participated in the Journalists in Residence Program at the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, a joint enterprise of economists and legal scholars at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, department of economics, and law school.

Early in her professional life, Francine worked as an accounting manager, financial reporting manager, and controller in private industry. She’s a native of the south side of Chicago and started her career in internal audit at Chicago’s Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust. She has lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, and is fluent in Spanish.

In 2006, Francine created the blog re: The Auditors to explore in an independent, objective, and often critical way the role, responsibility, and regulation of the audit and accounting industry in the global capital markets, and in particular, the business of the Big Four audit firms.

Francine says the title of her piece is “Western Avenue Black and Blues: A ballad of boundaries, buses and bars.” Don’t miss her at 730pm at Beverly Arts Center this Tuesday, October 3rd for our special Frunchroom show on race and identity.

Need a reminder of this event? Click here to RSVP on Facebook.