Educators, career counseling offices and alumni associations know well the stories of mid-career challenges. Courted by companies at graduation and quickly promoted in early years, well-educated professionals may assume that success will always be theirs for the asking, even if they take time off. It can be equally easy for universities to assume that graduates who are unable to sustain career success are simply opting out or lacking in ambition. Professionals who leave their careers, even for a short time, face real obstacles on reentry. In this article, the author addresses the problems associated with mid-career reentry to the workforce for professional women and men. She summarizes the magnitude of the problem by stating that each year the workforce is permanently losing educated, high-potential professional women and men from key sectors due to short-term needs for work flexibility. She describes the market research, design, challenges, and future of the MIT Midcareer Acceleration Program in addressing this problem. (Contains 1 figure and 9 endnotes.)