By their very culture and training, nurses understand the context of their patients’ health and lives. Whether working on the front lines of care or managing health systems, they are attentive to the social determinants of health – the environments where people live, learn, work, and play that researchers have increasingly shown to both determine health outcomes and life expectancy. So as we move further into the 21st Century, and public health leaders, public sector officials, policy makers, and partners in the private sector work of reimaging how we build healthy communities, the question is clear: what role can nurses play in modern public health leadership?