Coleen Kelly Mast, the author of the SEX RESPECT curriculum, is a sensitive teacher in tune with the needs of teens. Through ten years of teaching family life education she discovered current sex education courses were not meeting the real needs of teens who were trying to lead a healthy life. Throughout her evening studies in graduate school, she found many other health teachers also were dissatisfied or uncomfortable with their public school sex education units. In response, she entitled her Masters curriculum project, SEX RESPECT, and in the fall of 1983 developed a curriculum guide for teachers. Word-of-mouth interest was generated from state to state. She published her proven successful course which motivated teens to practice and even turn the peer pressure toward chastity. It was that same semester that her 16-year-old high school students formed a traveling squad called McNamara Ambassadors of Sexual Health (MASH) and began traveling nationally to teach these concepts to younger teens. This generated additional attention toward her teaching content, style and methods, and national interest became widespread. Schools and health care facilities have not stopped calling. Originally implemented in the Midwest, the SEX RESPECT program quickly has grown from coast to coast, and is presently being used in all 50 states and 23 foreign countries.