Leadership development in the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence

This article describes the leadership development emphasis of the Building Academic Geriatric Nurse Capacity (BAGNC) funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation. This initiative is a network of 5 centers established initially to prepare pre-doctoral scholars and post-doctoral fellows as academic geriatric nurse faculty. The critical need for academic geriatric nurses and geriatric nurse leaders for broad system development is described. Lessons learned and future multi-center plans are also presented.