College of Medicine alum pledges additional $1.5 million to USF programs

Oct. 28, 2024

By Kiley Mallard

When Valerie Riddle started as a first-year medical student at what is now the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the program was still young. Its charter class had just graduated 11 years before.

But Riddle liked its proximity to home, and the education and mentoring she received set her on a path toward a fulfilling career as a physician and as a biopharmaceutical industry executive and entrepreneur.

In the 35 years since she graduated, Riddle has proudly seen the college grow into a nationally recognized academic medical center with more than 5,000 alumni, 1,200 faculty and 900 students.

Through her roles on the college’s Alumni Society board and, since 2018, as an assistant professor and associate dean for alumni engagement, she has played a key role in fostering the next generation of physicians while keeping her fellow alumni connected to USF.

Through her gifts, she ensures that impact will continue long after her lifetime.

Already longtime, generous donors to the university, this past April, Riddle and her husband, David Reader, made an additional $1.5 million estate gift to be split among several endowments they’d previously created for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP) and USF Athletics’ Stampede for Women.

“We truly appreciate this gift from Valerie and David,” says USF President Rhea Law. “As a proud alumna, Valerie has supported the University of South Florida by sharing her time and talent with us for decades. This act of generosity will continue the legacy that she and her husband have created and will positively impact students in several key areas of our university.”

For Riddle, who gives almost exclusively to USF, it comes down to student success.

“I have a passion for seeing students succeed, seeing them rise above what they thought they could accomplish. Because I feel like I have landed in a place that I never, ever thought I would be,” she says.

A Tampa native, Riddle grew up in a happy home, though money would sometimes get tight.

“I felt like I had an amazingly wonderful childhood even though, as I learned later, my parents had to sacrifice, scraping together enough money for something as simple as taking us to the state fair,” she says. “They would do things like give up lunch for a week or two.” 

Riddle’s father encouraged her from a young age to pursue higher education. He had started work on a degree at USF but gave up when juggling a family and a full-time job with classes became too much. He wanted more opportunity for his daughter.

She took a brief hiatus after high school, and after a couple of years, returned home and enrolled at USF. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1984 and an MD in 1989. 

As a student, she discovered an interest in infectious diseases, and started her career working with HIV/AIDS patients at Washington Hospital Center, in Washington, D.C. 

The work was fulfilling but exhausting, and Riddle started reevaluating her career path. When she came across a fax from biopharmaceuticals company MedImmune (now part of AstraZeneca), she was intrigued by the work being done there. Riddle reached out — and found a fellow USF alum, who interviewed her for a position. It made her appreciate the power of networking for the first time.

She got the job and discovered a meaningful career outside of clinical medicine, working for several companies in the biopharmaceutical industry before founding her own, BioPharmAdvisors LLC, in 2012.

She also met Reader, a corporate and business attorney, on a blind date in 1994; they married less than a year later. 

With her life established in the Washington, D.C., area, Riddle fell out of touch with her alma mater, but the introduction of USF Football in 1997 brought her back to campus to attend games with her parents.

“I think that’s part of the reason Athletics is an area I really see as valuable to the profile of the university,” she says.

Once reconnected, she jumped in with both feet. Riddle became involved with the Morsani College of Medicine Alumni Society, helping to build it into the thriving group it is today. 

For the last 10 years, Riddle has been an active member of WLP, including serving on the Executive, Mentoring and Scholarship Committees, as a liaison to the Sarasota-Manatee campus and, for the last year and a half, as WLP university chair.

She also became a USF donor, including an estate gift to the College of Medicine and contributions to several “bricks and mortar” projects.

Her giving changed, however, when she was asked to serve on the USF Foundation Board of Directors. Over nearly 10 years of service, she learned a tremendous amount about philanthropy. She realized she could make a bigger impact on a more individual basis, and established scholarships and a faculty research award while providing support for student programs in WLP and the Morsani College of Medicine.

She and Reader modified, and have now added to, their original estate gift to better target the funds they’ve established.

“I have a limit for how much I can afford to do while I’m living, so that translates into a planned gift that, hopefully, will leave a legacy and some of those things can keep happening,” she says.

A portion of their most recent legacy gift will enhance the Riddle Family Memorial Scholarship, which she established in 2013 to support medical students.

Recipient Emma Carraway, MD ’24, says while she was grateful to receive the financial support as a first-year medical student, the scholarship offered benefits she didn’t expect. 
She found a mentor and friend as well. 

“Dr. Riddle is one of the most incredible people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. She offered wisdom, a listening ear and, frequently, a strong cup of coffee that helped me during medical school,” she says. “I know her impact will be felt by generations of medical students and physicians.”

USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman says Riddle and Reader’s dedication to USF never ceases to amaze him.

“This gift continues the beautiful legacy Val and David have already established,” he says. “As an alumna and a faculty member, Val is 100% committed to helping others succeed. We are truly appreciative of her support and dedicated leadership of so many areas of our university.” 

Reader gets joy from seeing Riddle “light up” when she talks about the students her generosity has touched.

“She’s the most empathetic person I’ve ever met. Her giving is genuine,” he says.

Reader, president and chief operating officer of Cortland Advisors, says the university provides an exciting “marketplace of ideas.” 

“Every year there’s new people and new events. You get out of your own bubble. I think that makes me a better person,” he says. “And the gratification you get watching people ‘launch’ is really kind of cool.”

Today, Riddle and Reader live in Tampa’s Channelside District, just half a mile from the new USF Health Downtown building and the medical school where Riddle got her start.

Thanks to her gifts of time, talent and treasure, many others will continue to find their path there as well.

“If I have what I need — more than I need,” she says, “why not give back and help make someone else’s life better to the extent that I can?”