California’s community clinics require strong, committed leaders who can navigate their organizations through an increasingly complex healthcare system and meet the needs of their diverse patient populations. Clinics are facing considerable pressure to adapt to changes brought on by the passage of healthcare reform, the shift toward more integrated and patient-centered care, the profusion of health information technology and the restriction of state and local resources. In this environment, clinic executives require an evergrowing set of skills to lead effective and efficient organizations. While the need for strong clinic leaders is clear, many current executives are approaching retirement or contemplating other steps in their professional lives, and the majority of these leaders have not yet identified someone to take their place. To address this imminent leadership gap, Blue Shield of California Foundation (the Foundation) partnered with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to design and implement the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program (the program). The intensive, 18-month program prepares emerging leaders to move into executive positions within five to eight years in order to sustain a strong and vibrant community clinics field in California. Since its launch in 2008, the program has trained approximately 125 emerging leaders over five cohorts.