Francine Falk-Allen survived polio and six months of hospitalization at age three, emerging with a lifetime-paralyzed leg she has learned to love for its seemingly indomitable will to support her active life. She is also a breast cancer survivor and had many “childhood” illnesses which are now preventable by vaccines. As a former art major who got a BA in managerial accounting and ran her own business for thirty-three years, she has always craved creative outlets. This has taken the form of singing and recording with various groups, painting, and writing songs, poetry and essays.

Francine’s memoir, Not a Poster Child: Living Well with a Disability—A Memoir has won gold and silver medals and has been included on several lists of best books of 2018. She was named one of “25 Women Making a Difference in 2019” by Conversations Magazine. Falk-Allen facilitates Polio Survivors of Marin County, a Meetup writing group, Just Write Marin County, and she is on the City of San Rafael’s Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Committee. She was the polio representative interviewed in a PBS/Nobel Prize Media film, The War Against Microbes. She loves the outdoors, gardening, pool exercise, her two silly cats, spending time with good friends and her husband, Richard Falk, strong British tea, and a little champagne now and then.