This article describes an innovative approach, developed by North Carolina State University, to prepare leaders specifically for work in rural schools in high poverty districts. Operating with Race-to-the-Top funding, the Northeast Leadership Academy is a selective program with embedded practice and focused summer community internships. The program aims at spanning developmental psychology across K-12 grades. Models of turnarounds are chosen for their rural contexts, and executive coaching and mentoring aid in the transition to leadership positions. Perhaps most innovative is the aim that leaders of rural schools in poor districts need to be both community-focused and student-focused. The activities for NELA Fellows are designed to graduate turnaround leaders who are diagnosticians of student learning as well. (Contains 2 endnotes.)