If you are a potential applicant, please contact Jennifer.LiuGoluszka@childrens.harvard.edu and click here

Training/Continuing Education:

The Boston LEAH Program

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 (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Boston LEAH Program and its faculty direct continuing education courses each year on topics including Adolescent Medicine, Pediatric/Adolescent Gynecology, HIV Care, Leadership, and Mentoring. The Faculty and Fellows give numerous presentations to professional audiences, families and youth, schools, and public health conferences in addition to providing consultations for technical assistance. 

Additionally, MCH LEAH, LEND, and Behavioral Pediatrics Faculty and Fellows have authored learner-centered cases on growth, development, behavior and adolescent health to facilitate pediatric residents learning the Bright Futures guidelines for health supervision (pedicases.org).

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.

Training/Research

Clinical experience is gained in inpatient and outpatient settings including a large hospital-based adolescent/young adult program, community health centers, university and school health services, detention centers, and residential schools. The program is committed to undertaking research vital to the promotion of adolescent health and, therefore, involvement in research and QI 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 program has dedicated faculty, internationally known for faculty development, continuing education, scholarship and technical assistance and collaboration. The program works with other MCH training programs at Children’s, in New England and nationally, and with Title V State Departments of Public Health, the State Adolescent Health Coordinators, and professional organizations to improve the health of adolescents.

Goals

The goals of the LEAH Program are:

• to provide interdisciplinary training of health care professionals for leadership roles in adolescent health.
• to work toward improvement of the health status of adolescents and reduction of health disparities through partnerships with other professionals, teams and agencies, addressing the Healthy People 2030 Objectives.
• to improve family- and youth-centered, culturally competent, community-based care for adolescents and young adults, disseminating new models, partnering with Title V programs and organizations.

Leadership training produces the next generation of leaders who can influence and train direct service clinicians, become public policy and public health experts, and move the field forward through research, scholarship, QI, and program development.

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.

Core Faculty

Amy DiVasta, MD, MMSc

Interim Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine; Co-Director, Center for Young Women’s Health

Kelly Dunn, MS, RN, CPNP

Director of the Nursing Fellowship for the Boston LEAH Program

S. Jean Emans, MD
Senior Advisor to the Boston LEAH Program; Chief Emeritus, Division of Adolescent Medicine; Co-Director Emeritus, Center for Young Women’s Health

Sara Forman, MD
Associate Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine; Clinical Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine

Melissa Freizinger, PhD
Associate Director of Psychology Fellowship for the Boston LEAH Program

Nanci Ginty Butler, LICSW
Director of the Social Work Fellowship for the Boston LEAH Program

Jennifer Liu Goluszka

LEAH Program Coordinator

Sarah Pitts, MD
Director of the Boston LEAH Program, Director of the Adolescent Medicine Fellowship

Emily Pluhar, PhD
Director of Psychology Fellowship for the Boston LEAH Program

Katrina Schroeder Smith, RD, LDN
Co-Director of the Nutrition Fellowship for the Boston LEAH Program

Lydia Shrier, MD, MPH

Research Director, Division of Adolescent Medicine

Elizabeth Woods, MD, MPH
Associate Chief Emeritus, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Director of Evaluation and Outcomes for the Boston LEAH Program

Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) Program
Boston Children’s Hospital
Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine
300 Longwood Ave, Mailstop 306
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 355-5482
Jennifer.LiuGoluszka@childrens.harvard.edu