One innovative, higher-education response to globalization and changing fiscal realities is the curricular joint venture (CJV), a formal collaboration between academic institutions that leverages missions through new joint degrees and research not previously offered by collaborating institutions (Eckel, 2003). In 1997, a pioneering biomedical engineering (BME) CJV was proposed and approved in a scant four months between the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering and the Emory University School of Medicine. Its first decade (1998-2008) produced exemplary performance attracting eminent scholars, significant foundation and peer-reviewed research awards, and top national rankings. "The joint Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University" presents an academic phenomenon that leverages complementary institutional strengths, provides leaders new means to cope with fast-changing academic and economic conditions, and generates knowledge-driven economic development. This case study, using qualitative research methods, examines and explores why and how this Atlanta, Georgia-based BME CJV came to be. Its story, shaped by cultural contexts such as place, people and purposes, offers lessons learned from leaders who helped to create and sustain this BME CJV. Their perspectives, examined through the lens of change leadership theory (Kotter, 1990; 1996) provides rich, robust insights from a pool of academic, business, government and philanthropic leaders. Higher education leaders around the world struggle to crack the code for improving the effectiveness of knowledge creation while civic leaders seek to grow a knowledge economy with well-paid jobs. This CJV is a twenty-first-century intellectual infrastructure bridge that connects disciplines and creates collaborations important to academia, industry, and knowledge-driven economic development. It is able to transcend leadership changes while enabling change that strengthens the two research universities as they leverage their standalone institutional strengths. Georgia Tech and Emory leaders are generating campus and community support for their strategic collaborations through the prestige, resources and relevance this BME CJV yields. One compelling conclusion comes from this case study: Collaborations are a twenty-first-century competitive advantage for research universities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]