Patricia A. Stout, Ph.D., is Professor of Advertising and John P. McGovern Regents Professor in Health and Medical Science Communication in the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a co-director of the Center for Public Health Promotion Research in the School of Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin. She joined UT-Austin in 1984 after receiving her Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to pursuing a doctoral degree, she worked as an advertising executive in Montana and assisted with communication and campaign design for the Minnesota Heart Health Program while at the University of Minnesota. As a visiting research professor at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta with the National AIDS Information and Education Program, she conducted communication research on the “America Responds to AIDS” campaign. Dr. Stout has conducted experimental research related to health communication and emotion-based messages directed to the college-aged population on HIV prevention and drinking and driving. Her research focuses on viewer response to persuasive messages and advertising, with particular interest on individuals’ emotional response and with messages delivered online via the Web. She has served as an advisor to the Texas Department of Health on a three-year statewide public health awareness campaign, to the Texas Task Force on Obesity, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Research Priorities Group, and to the NIMH on stigma and mental illness and suicide prevention. Dr. Stout has received funding from NIMH and the Hogg Foundation for research on the role of media in mental illness stigma.