Vicky Rideout

Vicky Rideout is vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation and director of the Foundation's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health. At the Foundation, Ms. Rideout established partnerships with several national television networks, including MTV, BET and UPN, to undertake media campaigns on sexual health issues. The public service ads and full-length programming she helped develop have received numerous awards, including a National Emmy Award for best public service announcement, a Cine Golden Eagle Award, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Ribbon of Hope Award, and several Telly and Aegis Awards for advertising. Ms. Rideout currently oversees the Foundation's research agenda on the impact of entertainment media on health. She has directed numerous media-related studies on topics such as the health content of entertainment television, children's media use, the nature of sexual content on television, and teens' use of the Internet for health information. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Rideout was the founding director of the Children & The Media program at the national children's advocacy group Children Now. Ms. Rideout also has fifteen years of experience as a Congressional staffer, policy adviser and speechwriter to numerous government officeholders and political candidates. She graduated with honors from Harvard University and received her MA from Syracuse University.