“The two arms of feminism—scholarship and activism—have produced the “scholar-activist”, someone whose academic home in a university doesn’t alienate her from the daily struggles of women across class, caste, ethnicity, race, gender and sexual diversity. Instead, scholar-activists engage both theory and praxis in collaborative and mutually interactive enterprises.  Yet far too often, feminist activists and academics struggle to find common ground, even though our work is interdependent and foundational to feminism. In spite of many decades of scholar-activism, tensions remain between our theoretical and applied goals, and mistrust too often characterizes the relationships between scholar-activists and the women and men we partner with in communities. Therefore, the Third Women’s Studies Conference offered a rewarding workshop building on decades of feminist scholar-activism, highlighting approaches to building bridges across these divides. Workshop participants outlined numerous challenges, including ideas about building trust as a foundation for sustainable partnerships, identifying vulnerabilities, moving beyond gender stereotypes, acknowledging our privilege, managing expectations, and seeking funding. We highlighted the importance of listening to the goals of our potential partners, sharing our stories as well as those of our partners, building shared values, reflecting on our assumptions, delegating responsibilities, and stressing our accountability.  Accountability emerges from outlining achievable goals, contextualizing problems within local and regional cultural, economic, and political realities and committing ourselves to long-term engagement.  These are significant and challenging objectives; they require ongoing commitment and we sought to share and learn from one-another’s strategies. The Fourth Women’s Studies Conference will continue the momentum of previous conferences through our keynote speakers, conference panels, and ongoing workshops.”