DCPCA is a nonprofit health reform organization founded in 1996 by health care professionals who were concerned that the shortage of primary health care in the District was contributing to increasingly poor health outcomes for DC's most vulnerable residents. With a budget of $140,000 in seed money from the federal government's Bureau of Primary Care, Sharon Baskerville became DCPCA's first executive director in 1998. As DCPCA established itself in the late 1990s, District voters elected a new mayor and six new members of the DC Council. The improved political environment made it possible for the District's budget to emerge from direct federal control. Under these new conditions, DCPCA emerged as a health reform leader and quickly became the local voice promoting progressive health care financing and public policy, galvanizing political support at the local and federal levels.