Christopher DeFrancesco '95 (CLAS)

Chris DeFrancesco has been writing for UConn Health since 2007. He is a proud graduate of UConn’s journalism program. As an undergraduate in Storrs he was one of the play-by-play voices of UConn men’s and women’s basketball on WHUS-FM, a writer for the Daily Campus, and a campus shuttle bus driver. He’s been a freelance writer, editor of two weekly newspapers (Bloomfield Journal and Windsor Locks Journal), and most notably a reporter and anchor on WTIC NewsTalk 1080. He is a four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters Association Walt Dibble Award for Personal Excellence in Radio. Chris also is an elected officer in his union (UHP Local 3837) and serves on the board of the Newington Children’s Theatre Company, Connecticut’s longest-running youth theatre program. He lives in Newington with his wife, Caroline, daughter, Audrey, and their dogs, Spot and Alex.


Author Archive

Health Center Physician Solves TV Anchor’s Dad’s Medical Mystery

A Florida man is pain-free and playing 18 holes of golf again, thanks in part to a UConn Health Center physician who never touched him or even met him. In January, Dr. Kanwar Singh of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center was discussing a new minimally invasive treatment of peripheral arterial disease during an […]

New England Musculoskeletal Institute Bone Repair Research Makes Cover

Researchers from the New England Musculoskeletal Institute have come up with a way to speed up and enhance bone repair, and their work is featured on the cover of the May 2011 journal Molecular Therapy. This new approach involves obtaining stem cells from bone marrow, genetically engineering them with a virus that carries a bone formation […]

Auxiliary Remembers Celeste LeWitt, Presents Scholarships

In the art gallery that bears her name, the UConn Health Center Auxiliary paused its annual meeting for a moment of silence in memory of Celeste LeWitt. LeWitt had an active role with the Auxiliary in establishing the Health Center’s art collection, which to date has more than 1,500 pieces and continues to grow. She passed […]

First-years Preparing to Cycle Cross Country to Fight Leukemia

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_EhRNNzCrI&feature=player_embedded’] They’ll land in San Francisco, assemble their bicycles, and set out on a 4,000-mile journey back home. First-year medical students James Alex, Greg Hebert and Tom Williams, along with first-year dental student Xing Zhu, make up the 2011 Coast to Coast for a Cure team. The cross-country bike trek to raise money for leukemia […]

Health Center Nurse is Son’s Kidney Donor

A nurse hopes to save another life by donating a kidney to her 19-year-old son.

Health Center June Programs, Events

Following is a rundown of UConn Health Center events in June: Nutrition for a Healthy Heart Wednesday, June 1, 2 to 4 p.m., UConn Health Center, Dowling North Building The UConn Health Center’s Healthy Nutrition program invites you on a journey to a lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol and healthier weight. This group meets on […]

CICATS Symposium Sets Sights on Sickle Cell

A daylong research symposium June 2 at the UConn Health Center will focus on a painful blood disorder believed to affect nearly 100,000 Americans and millions worldwide. “Sickle Cell Disease: Translating Science into Action,” presented by the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, will feature eight speakers, including Dr. Biree Andemariam, a clinician-scientist in the Lea’s Foundation Center […]

Back to Bike to Work

The weather is getting nicer and for some that means the conditions are right for taking the bicycle to work instead of the car. At least that’s what normally is supposed to happen in May. This year the weather has been less than cooperative, postponing the Health Center’s first bike-to-work breakfast of the season and […]

Season’s Last Massey Lecture to Revisit Early U.S. Medicine

Catherine L. Thompson, assistant professor in residence in the UConn Department of History, will give the last spring semester talk of the Robert U. Massey History of Medicine and Medical Humanities Lecture Series. Thompson will present “Therapeutic Experience and Expectations in the Early U.S. Republic” Tuesday, May 17, at 7 p.m. in the Low Learning Center. Thompson’s article […]

Calhoun Ride Back for Fifth Year

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt2SXYwzcyU&feature=player_embedded’] UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun, a three-time national champion and three-time cancer survivor, brings his annual fundraising bike ride and walk back to Simsbury for a fifth year. The 2011 NBC Connecticut Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk will be held at the Performing Arts Center at Simsbury Meadows on Iron Horse […]