The rapid evolution of Charlotte, North Carolina, from "regional backwater" to globally ascendant city provides stark contrasts of then and now. Once a regional manufacturing and textile center, Charlotte stands today as one of the nation's premier banking and financial cores with interests reaching broadly into global markets. Once defined by its biracial and bicultural character, Charlotte is now an emerging immigrant gateway drawing newcomers from Latin America and across the globe. Once derided for its sleepy, nine-to-five "uptown," Charlotte's center city has been wholly transformed...

Oregon Health & Science University seemed stuck in the backwaters of the nation's academic health centers when Dr. Peter Kohler became its president in 1988. Its hospital hemorrhaged money, served rusty water from its faucets, and sometimes forced women in its cramped maternity ward to deliver babies in hallways. Legislators proposed bills to close it. State support for the university was on the decline as was maintenance on its aging buildings. Roofs leaked, walls cracked, and researchers struggled in dark, ill-equipped labs. So Kohler and his young administrative team came up with a...