Fran Bruni

Fran was born in San Francisco, CA, at Saint Francis Hospital. She received a BA in History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. She earned a General Secondary Master’s in Education at San Francisco State University. She got a degree in Library Science from the University of San Francisco.

She worked for 25 years as an English/Reading teacher in the Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City, CA. She was school head librarian for that school for ten of those years. She is a 27-year volunteer for a women’s rehabilitation center, Pinehurst, through the Salvation Army in San Francisco, CA. While at Pinehurst, she learned of a retreat being offered by The Institute for Poetic Medicine which she attended. This resulted in many years of sponsoring poetry circles at Pinehurst through IPM students in training. She says she was astonished to be the witness to the miracle and therapeutic effect of poetry-as-healer. She joined the IPM Board in 2019 and resigned at the end of 2023.