Seattle Children’s Hospital
Division of Adolescent Medicine
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206.987.2862
Email: UWLEAH@nulluw.edu
Blog for parents of adolescents: http://teenology101.seattlechildrens.org
Project Director
Leslie Walker, MD
leslie.walker@nullseattlechildrens.org
Program Coordinator
Katie Albertson
katie.albertson@nullseattlechildrens.org
Settings
- The University of Washington LEAH program is located in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, the major pediatric teaching hospital of the University of Washington.
- UW LEAH is affiliated with University of Washington School of Nursing, School of Social Work, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Nutritional Sciences, and the School of Public Health.
Mission
The UW LEAH Program is dedicated:
- To training future leaders in adolescent health in core adolescent health disciplines (medicine, nursing, nutrition, psychiatry, and social work) as well as other key fields including public health and dentistry. Didactic and hands-on training activities focus on leadership skills for interprofessional clinical care, research, policy, advocacy, and the development of health services for adolescents, including those with special health care needs.
- To reducing health disparities through the development of youth-centered, family-involved, culturally competent, community-based care for adolescents in partnership with Title V programs in the 5-state area served by the UW LEAH program (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) and MCH Region X.
Philosophy and Guiding Principles
- The UW LEAH Program is guided by the MCH goals of eliminating barriers and health disparities, ensuring quality care, increasing diversity and representativeness of health care professionals, and improving health infrastructure and systems.
- The UW LEAH Program provides leadership training to nurses, nutritionists, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and other professionals through interprofessional and discipline-specific curricula including seminars in:
- Adolescent health
- Advocacy
- Health Equity
- Cultural competency
- Healthy development and health promotion
- Leadership skills
- Life Course theory
- Problem and disease prevention
- Public policy
- Research
- Teaching
Our curriculum integrates a biological and developmental framework and works toward the improvement of adolescent health, locally and nationally through partnerships with families and youth, providers, state and local agencies, and professional organizations.
Scientific and Research Capabilities
The UW LEAH faculty has a long history of collaborative interdisciplinary research with many active research projects funded by the NIH, MCH, CDC, and private foundations.
Research expertise of UW LEAH faculty covers a broad range of methodologies and content areas, including:
- Asthma
- Community-based prevention and promotion of healthy development
- Complementary and alternative therapies
- Eating disorders
- Health services research
- Improving services for foster care youth
- Improving health care access through telemedicine and technology
- Interventions to improve sleep and promote healthy development
- GLBT youth
- Gynecology
- Mental health disorder prevention and treatment integration in primary care settings
- Media use
- Obesity and nutrition
- STD and HIV care
- Substance use prevention and treatment
- Teen parenting
Academic Training Programs
- The UW LEAH Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital offers a three year Adolescent Medicine fellowship (2 years for internal medicine and family practice), one year fellowships in Nursing, Nutrition, and Social Work, and and a 1-2 year Postdoctoral Fellowship for Psychology.
- UW LEAH is a part of the UW MCH Consortium, which includes five other MCHB training programs:
- Pediatric Pulmonary Center (PPC)
- Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND)
- Leadership Education in Pediatric Dentistry (LEPED)
- MCH Leadership in Public Health (MCH-PH)
- Seattle Site for Partners in Excellence for Leadership Training in MCH Nutrition (home institution – University of California, Los Angeles)
Distance Learning
Our goal is to provide distance learning to low-resource regions such as Eastern Washington, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
Clinical Programs
- Adolescent Medicine
- Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology
- Male health
- Transgender health
- Obesity
- General adolescent medicine consultation
- Eating Disorders
- Biofeedback
- Adolescent Substance Abuse
- Behavioral Problems
- Sports medicine
- Seattle Children’s Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
- Homeless Teen Clinic
- Juvenile Detention Center
- School based health services
- Seattle Children’s Home
- Group Health Cooperative
- Harborview Teen Clinic and STD clinic
Partners
- Atlantic Street Center
- Harborview Injury and Prevention Research Center Nutritional Sciences Department
- Healthcare for the Homeless Network
- Maternal and Child Health BureauTitle V: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho
- National Suicide Prevention Resource Center
- Neighborcare Health
- Prevention Works in Seattle (WINS)
- Public Health Seattle & King County
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Division of Adolescent Medicine
- Society for Adolescent Health & Medicine
- US DHHS, Region X
- University of Washington
- Department of Pediatrics
- Division of Adolescent Medicine
- Department of Psychiatry
- School of Nursing
- Social Development Research Group
- School of Public Health
- School of Social Work
- Social Development Research Group
- UW MCH Consortium
- UW Center for AIDS and STD
- Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction
- WA State Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) Program
- Youth Suicide Prevention Program Seattle
Core Faculty
Leslie Walker, MD
Director of the UW LEAH Program; Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine
Laura Richardson, MD, MPH
Associate Director of the UW LEAH Program
Cari McCarty, PhD
Psychology Lead
Andrea Landis, PhD, RN, FNP-BC
Nursing Co-Lead
Janet Cady, MN, ARNP
Nursing Co-Lead
Erik Schlocker, MSW, LICSW
Social Work Lead
Rico Catalano, PhD
Social Work Faculty
Alicia Dixon Docter, RD, CD, MS
Nutrition Co-Lead
Jane Rees, RD, MS, PhD
Nutrition Co-Lead
