I have chosen a woman who I believe defines the essence of a leader. Her name is Ana Mola and she is the Director of Care Transitions & Population Health Management at New York University Langone Medical Center. Prior to her role in Care Transitions, she was the Program Director for the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Center at the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine at NYU Medical Center. Ana is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), has published multiple articles, and is a sought-after speaker both nationally and internationally. Section 2 Leadership can be defined as someone who selects, equips, trains, and influences one or more follower(s) who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s mission and objectives, causing the follower(s) to willingly and enthusiastically expend spiritual, emotional, and physical energy in a concerted coordinated effort to achieve the organizational mission and objectives (Bass 1990). Daft and Lengel (1998) posited that leaders must create an image in the minds of the followers that the followers belong to something bigger and more important than just an individual job. Schein (2004) claimed this can be accomplished if the leader demonstrates extraordinary levels of perception as insight into the realities of the world. Undeniably, our life experiences and choices set the stage for our futures. Sports and student government were instrumental in molding some of Ana’s early beliefs. She was very active in sports and tells me that through them, she learned that you cannot win alone. This experience, on a very granular level, helped her to understand the true sense of collaboration and shared goals, which ultimately shaped her future leadership roles. Student council and government brought out an inherent predisposition in her to lead. She believes that leaders are not necessarily “born”. Yes, there are some who are, indeed, born leaders, but leaders can be developed. Starting out with a modicum of innate leadership ability can potentially translate into the makings of a great leader. She states that leadership does not come from your title. A real leader becomes more than the boss people are required to follow. A real leader must master the ability to inspire and build a team that produces not only results, but also future leaders. Throughout our interview, Ana refers to characteristics that she feels define a good leader. Among the many we discussed, she spoke of the importance of trust knowing, your employee, and pairing him/her with people that can match his/her strengths. She states that you can’t get to the end goal without motivating your team and giving them tools needed to get the job done. This is theoretically defined through Bandura’s (1997) concept of self-efficacy that, when moderated by the availability of resources and support of the organization, becomes “means efficacy,” which is part of general self-efficacy. Being a good listener and being open to suggestions from leadership and employees is key in leadership. Listening, Ana states, “is an art”. She emphasized the importance of being creative and thinking outside of the box, in addition to being knowledgeable of what is current, and about what potentially lies in the future. When Ana first entered the health care arena 30+ years ago, she said that there was always a level of competition, but it was done in a compassionate way to motivate people. “Now, our healthcare industry is as competitive as the business world. There are rewards and incentives that have potentially caused it to be siloed rather than expanding, it as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) intended for it to be. There is very little transparency. It is not a good place for healthcare, but this is the most opportune time in health care to make really good changes that can help and engage patients in their own self-care. We have such opportunities through health care reform to align ourselves with various providers, systems, and institutions for engaging patients in shared decision making”. We discussed how, as a leader, she is expected to further the organizational vision. Without flinching, Ana shared that “NYU has excellent vision. This enterprise has strategic goals that are shared from the dean of our academic center down to our managers about providing the best care, the best research to promote cures, and the best educational model; Our vision: World class research, education and delivery of care”. As the Program Director for the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Center at the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Med