Recent changes in health problems as well as the health delivery system demand expanding nursing roles to improve quality care and at the same time provide cost-effective health services. Nursing leaders of the future will be expected to be excellent care givers who are well prepared as researchers and managers and administrators. The purpose of developing an ND program is to train nursing leaders for the future. The program objective are to demonstrate the role as 1) an advanced practitioner who will provide theory based practice 2) a researcher and manager The target population of the ND program is as follows : 1) Nurses with a BSN degree who are seeking to advance on the career ladder 2) Non-nursing BS, BA graduates who are seeking nursing as a second career 3) Transfer students who are mature and motived to be nursing leaders It is believed that the ND program would meet the diverse needs for potential students, for their role in nursing and the health delivery system and create a meaning and challenging position in the profession of nursing. A task force team was organized to develop the ND program and its activities are as follows; 1) Information on ND programs were collected from 3 universities and reviewed 2)An advanced education needs assessment was completed and it was found that 87.6% of the subjects responded positively about advanced degree work. 3) A tentative curriculum for an ND program was developed. It is a great challenge to develop a new program for nursing however, it is also our task and responsibility to further the development of nursing.