This article uses a strategic foresight tool, megatrends, to examine forces influencing long-term healthcare staffing in the rural United States. Two megatrends—exponential advances in science and technology and the continued evolution of the decentralized global marketplace—will influence and ultimately help shape the future of rural healthcare. Successful health ecosystems of the future will need to be customer-driven, more affordable, and tech-savvy. Successful evolution in an era of continuous change will require a blend of intentional engagement with stakeholders, strategic foresight, and future-focused leadership. More research is needed to fully understand not only the challenges of rural healthcare but also the emerging opportunities.

Managing water resources is increasingly complex and dynamic. Sustaining freshwater ecosystem services in the face of increasing challenges and emerging threats is a supreme leadership challenge. Leadership development program designers should look to social science theories and methods to prepare leaders to catalyze the change necessary to meet future challenges. This paper provides evidence that a new generation of water leaders is needed; and correspondingly, there is a need for new leadership development programs. The Nebraska Water Leaders Academy and its evaluation is presented as a case study of a successful program training leaders in social science‐based skills in order to produce catalysts of change. The Academy is theoretically grounded in transformational leadership, champions of innovation, civic capacity, and entrepreneurial leadership. The Academy employs a process‐based curriculum with developmental experiences that includes key components of assessment, challenge, and support. Formative assessment provides constructive feedback from participants and guides the development of future sessions and curriculum. Summative assessment is used to gauge participants’ leadership knowledge, skills, and behaviors, and evaluate the instructional methods used in the Academy. Results of pre‐ and post‐Academy assessments of participants from both the participants’ and raters’ perspectives indicate statistically significant increases in transformational leadership behaviors, champion of innovation behaviors, civic capacity, entrepreneurial leadership behavior, awareness of Nebraska water issues, and engagement with Nebraska water issues.

Individuals, especially women, must be increasingly entrepreneurial in the twenty-first century in order to achievesuccess. It is also important for women to take an entrepreneurial approach to career development. The first keycomponent of an entrepreneurial approach to career development is investing in human capital. Continuousinvestment in human capital increases earning power, opens doors to professional opportunities, and contributesto career advancement. The second key component of an entrepreneurial approach to career development isinvesting in social capital. Women can increase their chances for professional success by developing networksthat connect them to key individuals, assignments, and resources within and outside of organizations. Distanceeducation is the third key component of entrepreneurial career development. Today, distance-delivered coursesand programs create new educational opportunities that women and men can use to invest in their human andsocial capital as well as their potential. This paper presents the three keys to entrepreneurial career developmentalong with evidence that supports the increasing importance for women to enhance their career success byembracing entrepreneurial strategies designed to leverage the connections among human capital, social capital,and distance education.