Dr. Francoli is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies in the School of Journalism and Communication. She previously served as Associate Dean of FPGA in multiple portfolios between 2017 and 2023, including as Director of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs.

She holds a doctorate in Political Science from Western University. Prior to joining the School of Journalism and Communication, she was the Leverhulme Visiting Fellow in New Media and Internet Politics at Royal Holloway, The University of London.

Dr. Francoli is a leading researcher in the field of open government and open data. She has authored two major reports for the Open Government Partnership assessing the Government of Canada’s progress in the area of open government. She has provided expert testimony to the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Government Operations on the issue of open data and has been invited to speak about open government and open data at a number of conferences and venues, including the annual meeting of the federal and provincial Information Commissioners in 2014.