This was a qualitative study that employed face-to-face interviewing as the primary data collection method. Participants were chosen using a purposeful sampling technique in which potential participants were stratified by gender, age, and organizational type and then randomly selected from each category. Interviewees came from different regions of the United States and worked in a range of fields including physics, agriculture, computer technology, human rights, conservation, pharmaceuticals, environmental policy, and music. An interview guide was employed to give interviews structure and maximize the busy interviewees' time. Interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes. Interview data were organized into single case studies built around constructs that surfaced during a review of the literature on both decision making and creativity. A cross-case analysis was also conducted.The results of the study supported existing theories of decision making, though these theories are relatively abstract and this study presents richer descriptions of the decision making process than one can find in the more abstract theoretical literature. As a consequence, this study should be useful to those who want to emulate individuals who have been publicly recognized for their creativity and for successfully making decisions in areas where well-established decision making pathways do not exist.vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS