This proposal is developed for inclusion as an innovative session proposed by the AHRD Scholar-Practitioner Track and Scholar-Practitioner Committee. It examines the roles of professional associations and the linguistic origins of academic and practitioner-based scholarship in the creation of professional knowledge. It asserts that professional associations, as nurturers of professional knowledge, can strengthen the alliance between academics and practitioners by providing a framework of common assumptions, values, and beliefs about professional knowledge. (Contains 1 figure.)