The purpose of this book is to examine the tensions, gaps, and intersections between the practices of leadership in educational systems, school leadership preparation programs, and the often different worlds of academia and k12 schools. Voices from both academia and k12 schools are used to illustrate the tensions that cluster around capacity, politics, and the everyday practice of inspiring, engaging, and preparing school leaders. Chapters include: (1) The Long Shadow of Mike Mikusa (Autumn Tooms Cyprès); (2) K-12 Administrator to New Faculty: Negotiating All Over Again (Thomas H. Beatty); (3) Newbie Again: Transitioning to the Professoriate From a Life in K-12 (Elizabeth Chase); (4) Hecate's Question: Seeing Multiple Dimensions to Navigate Responsibility, Set Goals, and Build Success in a Career (Noelle Witherspoon Arnold and Autumn Tooms Cyprès); (5) Preparing Educational Leaders as Consumers of Policies and Practices or Thinkers Influencing Educational Reform and Freedom? (Elizabeth Murakami and Frank Hernandez); (6) The Potential Role of Research Methods Courses in Bridging Research to Practice (Lisa M. Abrams and Tameshia V. Grimes); (7) Group Decision Making in Higher Education: Identifying the Tensions Between Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty (Brenda Cowlbeck); (8) The Heart Beats Strong, But the Fist Was Slow to Form: Lessons Learned From My Principal Preparation Program (Charles Smialek); (9) A Precarious Intersection of Democracy in the United States: The Public School Administrator's Dilemma in Working with the School Boards That Employ Them but Who Lack Critical Thinking Skills (John Tharp); and (10) Idealism, Realism, and Blue Jays in the Gas Chamber of Educational Leadership (Barbara Driver).