Adolescent Medicine

About LEAH

The Boston LEAH Program (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) trains future leaders in adolescent health by providing them with the skills to become effective clinicians, teachers, program leaders, policy makers, administrators, public health advocates and productive researchers in a variety of health care settings. LEAH is sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Curricula

The LEAH program provides leadership training to physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and dieticians. The program offers intensive interdisciplinary and discipline-specific curricula including seminars in adolescent health promotion, research, advocacy, public policy, prevention, eating disorders, cultural competency and teaching.

Clinical experience is gained in inpatient and outpatient settings including a large hospital-based adolescent program, community health centers and university health services. The program is committed to undertaking research vital to the promotion of adolescent health and, therefore, involvement in research projects is an important component of training.

The length of training and research requirements varies with the discipline and the training needs of the fellow candidates. Fellows are encouraged to work with public health agencies in designing projects and careers. The program has an outstanding record of training diverse, interdisciplinary fellows, and graduates of the program have become national leaders in adolescent health.

The goals of the LEAH Program are:

1. To provide interdisciplinary training of health care professionals for leadership roles in adolescent health.
2. To work toward improvement of the health status of adolescents through partnerships with other professionals, teams and agencies, addressing the Healthy People 2010 Objectives.
3. To advance knowledge and scholarship in adolescent health by developing model programs and by disseminating expert clinical knowledge and research.

Youth are America's promise. Investing in youth means valuing their contributions and promoting positive youth development so that each teen can become a healthy, productive, caring and committed adult. Investing in the health of youth also requires an infrastructure of trained health professionals uniquely qualified and in a position to partner with public health agencies, schools and community-based organizations.

The Boston LEAH Program is guided by the MCH goals of eliminating barriers and health disparities, assuring quality care and improving health infrastructure and systems.

S. Jean Emans, MD
Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine
Co-Director, Center for Young Women's Health

Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD
Associate Program Director
Director of Psychology Training

Maurice Melchiono, RN, CFNP
Co-Director of the Nursing Program

Pamela Burke, RN, CFNP, CPNP, PhD
Co-Director of the Nursing Program

Judith Siegel, MSW, LICSW
Director of the Social Work Program

Susan Frates, MS, RD, LDN
Co-Director of the Nutrition Program

Kendrin Sonneville, MS, RD, LDN
Co-Director of the Nutrition Program

Cathryn Samples, MD, MPH
Director of Community Based Programs
Assistant in Medicine

Elizabeth Woods, MD, MPH
Associate Chief, Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine
Director of Research

S. Bryn Austin, ScD
Director of Research Training for Fellows

Sara Forman, MD
Director, Outpatient Eating Disorders Program
Director of Resident and Medical Student Training

Adrianne Goncalves, BA
LEAH Coordinator