| Summary: | Historically, innovation within the higher education space has followed a cyclical pattern that results in very little change to the overall framework within which institutions operate. The moveable-type printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and even computers (for a time) only incrementally changed how students and faculty engaged in the classroom. Today, higher education is facing pressure like never before to remain relevant and is ripe for revolutionary innovation. There are individuals, groups, and institutions who are interested in taking proactive measures to test their ideas for better and more sustainable ways to serve students. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study investigated the following research question: How do education innovators make meaning of their experience in working to shape the future of higher education? Participants represented an appropriate cross-section of professionals from the higher education landscape who shared innovation as a central theme in their professional experiences. Recruited participants were formerly or currently employed in higher education (including consulting and education technology); recognized in title or expertise as an industry leader; and recognized by peers or industry news sources as a professional involved in innovative programs or practices. Participant responses clustered around common themes of the transformative power of higher education, the need to connect scholars to a larger community, hyper-local solutions that drive incremental change that turns into revolutionary change, the need for structural change in the higher education space, and innovation being considered taboo within the industry. Keywords: Higher education, innovation, higher education leadership--Author's abstract
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