The role of a community college department chairperson is not well defined and the job is often perceived as more of a burden than an honor. Faculty come to the position frequently by "default" and without a ready set of management and leadership skills. The matter is of concern since chairs influence academic department strategy, culture, and quality in addition to performing an abundance of managerial tasks. As first-line leaders they are the go-to people for issue resolution involving faculty and/or students. This paper discusses the development of department chairs and proposes a specific curriculum of leadership skills. (Contains 1 footnote.)