After decades of research into student learning, assessments, and curriculum design, physics is considered one of the leading fields engaged in discipline-based educational research (DBER).  Simultaneously, unprecedented national attention is now being paid to the outcomes of and needs for DBER.  Within physics, the sub-discipline of physics education research (PER) is now well-established and boasts robust lines of research that range from investigations of student learning of specific topics (e.g. how students understand propagation of light), to implementing and studying the nature of educational reforms and what makes them work or not work.  This interactive session will provide a brief overview of PER-based efforts at Colorado that have improved learning opportunities, increased student engagement, and recruited more students to teaching careers.  Through efforts such as the nationally emulated Learning Assistant program, we demonstrate improved student performance (as much as three times that of non-transformed classes), identify and begin to address the gender gap, and study the conditions to sustain these reforms.