History of the Program

The Adolescent Health Program resides within the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. It is located in the Rubenstein Child Health Building, which is attached to and directly across the street from the Charlotte R Bloomberg Children’s Hospital. In 1981, Dr. Joffe began the Adolescent Medicine Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital with the support of Dr. Catherine DeAngelis.

At that time, the program consisted of a half-day per week clinic. The two residents assigned to the adolescent rotation alternated two weeks in the adolescent clinic and two weeks in the in-patient service. Over the next five years, the adolescent clinic expanded to provide services every day. In addition, the program added the college- and school-based health centers to its list of responsibilities. Dr. Hoover Adger joined the adolescent program as the second adolescent medicine faculty member in 1984. The program grew with the recruitment of Drs. Michele Wilson, Anne Bruner, Jonathan ElIen, and Maria Trent. This team expanded the research agenda to focus on sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health.

In 2001, the program was established as the Section of Adolescent Medicine to acknowledge our relationship and organization within the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Concurrently, our team broadened focus and concentration on interdisciplinary care and health disparities. In 2006, the program secured funding from the National Institutes of Health (NICHD) to further support the fellows in our research agenda. Additionally, in 2007, the program was awarded funding from HRSA as one of seven national adolescent health programs, through receipt of a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) award designed to educate the next generation of leaders in the fields of medicine, psychology, nursing, nutrition, and social work. The Section of Adolescent Medicine maintained an active LEAH program for two cycles.

The Division continues to house the NIH-funded Adolescent Health Promotion Research Training Program (T32) to train Adolescent Medicine physician fellows in research. The award supports three Adolescent Medicine fellows each year. Fellows supported on the T32 generally complete a year of clinical training supported by the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and then enter the research training portion of the program for 2-3 years of research-related training. This training includes the opportunity to train in the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The fellows funded by the T32 work in synergy with all fellows in the ACGME accredited Adolescent Medicine training program, all discipline-specific trainees, and pre-and post-doctoral fellows affiliated programs.

In 2020, the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine was born with support from Drs. Tina Cheng (Pediatrics) and Joshua Sharfstein (Public Health) and under the leadership of Dr. Maria Trent, who became the inaugural Director of the Division and an endowed Bloomberg Professorship with this new leadership role. The Divison of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine currently has five full-time and one part-time board-certified Adolescent Medicine faculty, two Ph.D. scientists faculty focused on adolescent and young adult health, and an outstanding group of core faculty members in psychology, psychiatry, nursing, nutrition, and social work. All are involved in research, teaching, and clinical or other service activities. In addition, the Division has core clinical staff members, including an adolescent clinical nurse, social worker, and nurse practitioner. The Division also has an administrator, program administrator, grants specialist, and an impressive research portfolio and infrastructure. All these core staff members support the training and research activities of the Division.