Media coverage of this year’s Leadership Awards included three op-ed articles by or about award recipients in some of California’s largest newspapers. These leaders are addressing critical challenges for California, and the coverage provided an opportunity to highlight their successful approaches for a broader audience, including state policymakers. After all, our goal for the Leadership Awards is not just to recognize good work and inspiring leadership, but to help expand their approaches for the benefit of more Californians.

• Health reform’s missing link – nurse practitioners (Los Angeles Times, 2/22/12)
  Award recipient Patricia Dennehy, director of the nurse-managed GLIDE Health Services center in San Francisco, calls for an expanded role for nurse practitioners under federal health care reform. With millions more Californians expected to seek care under health care reform and a growing shortage of primary-care physicians, she argues nurse practitioners can - and should - fill the gap.

• How California can nurture next generation of farmers (Sacramento Bee, 2/12/12)
  Karen Ross, Secretary of California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, points out how important it is for California’s economy and food supply to recruit and support new farmers. She spotlights the promising model of the California Farm Academy, a program of the Center for Land-Based Learning and the brainchild of its founder, award recipient Craig McNamara.

• A template for counties if state shuts its youth prisons (San Jose Mercury News, 2/9/12)
  The Hon. James C. Emerson, a retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, argues that more California counties should follow the model of Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) as they prepare to take a larger role on juvenile justice issues. Thanks in part to FLY, whose founder Christa Gannon is a 2012 Leadership Award recipient, Santa Clara County has cut its population of incarcerated youth in half.

• WATCH: Head of California's Schools Laud GSA Leader (The Advocate, 3/1/12)

• Finding new health care providers will be difficult, crucial task (Capitol Weekly, 2/23/12)

• New academy teaches beginning farmers (Capitol Public Radio, 2/20/12)

• Winters sustainable ag leader wins James Irvine Foundation award (Sacramento Bee, 2/14/12)

• Innovators for Youth Honored (Educated Guess, 2/14/12)

• Preserving California agriculture should be a top priority (Capitol Weekly, 2/13/12)

• Center for Land-Based Learning’s founder McNamara honored with leadership award (Sacramento Business Journal, 2/13/12)