Susan Francia

Susan Francia attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating and then obtaining a master’s degree from there in criminology. She later obtained an MBA from UCLA. She was a member of the US women’s rowing team for 10 years, winning, in addition to her Olympic medals, five gold medals at the World Championships, with four golds in the eight in 2006-07, 2009, and 2011, adding gold in the pair in 2009. She also won a World silver in four in 2014 and a bronze in the pair in 2010.

Francia’s mother, Katalin Karikó, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on mRNA therapies, which led to several successful vaccines for the SARS-CoV2 virus that led to the COVID-19 pandemic.