The health and safety of the public relies heavily on an adequate supply of nurses. The majority of California nurses receive their training in community colleges where the nursing faculty shortage is expected to worsen in the next ten years. The experience of new nursing faculty in community colleges has not been studied or reported in academic references. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of nurses who have transitioned into a career as community college nursing faculty. Nine nursing faculty who are in the early stages of their career as nursing faculty in Southern California community colleges were interviewed in the fall semester of 2010. Individual interviews were conducted in order to identify successful transition strategies that can be implemented to address the nursing faculty shortage. Important recommendations on how to recruit and retain community college faculty have been generated from this study. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)