Creating a culture of engagement on college campuses requires investment and energy at the individual and institutional level. For a decade, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation has sponsored the Food Systems Professors Education initiative involving thirteen land-grant colleges of agriculture and their partners, designed to transform higher education and the food system. This endeavor was conceived to foster a culture of engagement and encourage outreach scholarship. Important lessons can be learned from this process, gleaned from individual and institutional examples of engagement. Learning more about the historical context for change in higher education, partnerships between philanthropy and land-grant colleges of agriculture, and theories of implementing organizational change can all contribute to our collective knowledge about institutional change and engagement. Reward systems and scholarly praxis are emphasized in this exploration.