Co-Founder, Julie Giesy Metzger, RN, MN
Co-Founder, Rob Lehman, MD
Additional faculty

Co-Founder, Julie Giesy Metzger, RN, MN
Julie Giesy Metzger began her nursing career at Seattle Children’s Hospital in 1981 caring for hospitalized teens and their families on the adolescent unit. The experience of working with teens who managed their lives with resilience and strength solidified her passion for adolescents and their families. In graduate school at the University of Washington School Of Nursing, Julie pursued her passion through research analysis of the experiences of young women in puberty. Inspired by that work, Julie designed and delivered For Girls Only: A Heart to Heart Talk on Growing Up while living in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1988 where it became a local hit. Julie returned to Seattle and began teaching For Girls Only in the early 1990’s at Seattle Children’s and launched what is now a perennial rite of passage for thousands of pre-teen girls and their mothers throughout the Puget Sound region and in Palo Alto at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. In addition to For Girls Only, Julie has written and taught curricula for teens that promote strategies for decision-making on health related topics. Julie has been invited to numerous school and community groups to talk to parents about topics related to adolescence. Her encouraging, straight-forward approach, matched with the latest research and strategies, have made her a popular presenter. Julie’s professional and clinical experiences include managing a pediatric unit, teaching pediatric nursing, and facilitating projects at Seattle Children’s. She and her husband are parents of three adolescent children who have been the primary inspiration of her work.
Co-Founder, Robert Lehman, MD
After completing his training in Pediatrics in Denver, Dr. Lehman found his passion by pursuing additional fellowship training in Adolescent Medicine. Ever since, he has been working to promote health care for teens as a teacher, clinician, and policy developer. Over the years, Dr. Lehman has managed and practiced at teen clinics in a variety of settings, including public health, specialty referral, homeless teen clinics, reproductive health, incarcerated youth, college youth, and special projects involving youth with disabilities. He has practiced and taught primary care, reproductive health, chronic care and all other aspects of the unique health care needs of youth to health care professionals from various disciplines. At present, he is continually thrilled to be teaching classes on puberty and sexual health, in giving talks to families and professionals on teen health, and is writing a book on puberty for boys. Dr. Lehman has also been active in health policy on state and national levels as chair of the Washington Health Coalition on Children and Youth, chair of the Northwest Chapter of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, Consultant in Adolescent Health for Public Health/Seattle & King County and is currently in an executive position in the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the leading international professional organization devoted to teen health. Dr. Lehman serves on the Seattle STD/HIV Prevention Training Center Advisory Board and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington.

Sue Heffernan, RN-BC, MN
Sue Heffernan, RN-BC, MN has a wealth of clinical and health education experience, as both a nurse at Children’s for over 30 years and a class instructor for For Girls Only for over 12 years. She is currently a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Nursing Professional Development department, assisting with nursing practice, regulatory compliance, patient safety and medical product use. Sue consults extensively with health care professionals within and external to Children’s. She is a parent to two grown daughters.

Michael Madwed
Michael Madwed is a family physician at the Group Health Rainier Medical Center in South Seattle. He is the founder and director of Group Health's Teen Pregnancy and Parenting Clinic. He is also a faculty member at Group Health's Family Practice Residency Program. He is fellowship-trained in adolescent medicine and is a member of the Society of Adolescent Medicine. He is married and has three children, boys 17 and 15, and a girl, 11. He has been teaching the course for nearly 10 years now.

Greg Smallidge
Greg Smallidge has facilitated classes and programs for 25 years, and started teaching sexuality education for the Seattle Public Schools in 1996. He works with high school peer educators, leads adult and family workshops, and teaches sexual health in classrooms from 5th to 12th grade. Greg began teaching For Boys Only in 2008, bringing an easy, comfortable style to talking with boys and their families. He is raising two boys with his wife Susan.


These are some of the places Julie Metzger and Rob Lehman have led classes in the last two years:

Seattle Children's Hospital
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
Mukilteo community, Mukilteo WA
Bainbridge Island community, Bainbridge Island WA
Annie Wright School, Tacoma, WA
Explorer West Middle School
Woodside Priory, Menlo Park CA
Castilleja School, Palo Alto CA

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