David Poindexter (pictured above), the founder and former president of Population Communications International, is the 2008 recipient of the Everett M. Rogers Award for Achievement in Entertainment-Education.

Poindexter will speak on the diffusion of entertainment-education at the Everett M. Rogers Colloquium luncheon on Oct. 2. Later that evening, he will be recognized as the fourth recipient of the annual award at the Sentinel for Health Awards ceremony at the Writers Guild of America, west in Los Angeles.

Hosted by the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the annual Rogers Award and Colloquium are given in memory of Everett M. Rogers (pictured below right), a former associate dean and the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Communication at the USC Annenberg School. The Rogers Award honors exceptional creativity in the practice of entertainment-education and excellence in research on the use of entertainment to deliver pro-social messages aimed at improving the quality of life of audiences in the United States and abroad.

Poindexter has had over 30 years of experience in communications strategies promoting family planning and reproductive health worldwide, including the application of entertainment-education methods in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “David, like no other, saw the potential of the entertainment-education strategy early. Then, over the next four decades, he worked tirelessly around the globe to enlist the political will and resources to make it happen,” says University of Texas communication professor Arvind Singhal, the 2005 recipient of the Rogers Award.

During the decade of the 1970s, David Poindexter was successful in mobilizing the producers and creators of numerous prime-time U.S. television shows, such as Maude, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and others, to incorporate discussions of family size and sexual stereotyping into the context of these shows. He also began working internationally, sharing with broadcasters in developing countries the experience gained in working with U.S. broadcasters.

Recipients of the Rogers Award are selected by a jury of prominent scholars in the field of health communication. Peter Clarke, former USC Annenberg dean who now holds a joint faculty appointment at USC Annenberg and the Keck School of Medicine at USC, chaired the selection committee.

The award will be presented to Mr. Poindexter during the ninth annual Sentinel for Health Awards ceremony, which is hosted by Hollywood, Health & Society, a project of the USC Annenberg School’s Norman Lear Center, on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Awards recognize exemplary achievements in television storylines that inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. For more information about the Sentinel for Health Awards and the Hollywood, Health & Society, visit www.usc.edu/hhs.