Many ecological, human health, and environmental justice challenges can be overcome through partnerships between scientists and their local communities. In 2018, the Ecological Society of America hosted several workshops focused on increasing engagement of scientists from public, private and nonprofit sectors in education/outreach initiatives within their local communities. These workshops revealed hallmarks of successful scientist-community partnerships in a wide variety of contexts, both affirming and challenging the guidelines for building successful scientist-community partnerships promulgated by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in their Scientist’s Guide to Successful Collaboration (2016). In particular, implementation of their guidelines (ask/listen, define goals, use science to build capacity, transparency/communication) can be complicated by issues of systemic racism, strong emotions, and cultural differences. This session will elaborate on prior ESA and UCS initiatives by showcasing examples of ecologists and other scientists working successfully with their local communities to address a variety of environmental, public health, and environmental justice challenges. Invited speakers (representing a diversity of ethnicities, genders, career stages, and geographical areas) from academic, government, and nonprofit sectors will share their experiences regarding challenges and successes in collaborating with underrepresented communities in a variety of contexts. In so doing, they will offer insights regarding effective management of inquiry, goal-setting, expectations, and communication in situations that are complicated by cultural differences, unjust power dynamics, and historical distrust. These candid reports will help refine current “best principles” guidelines and prepare/motivate audience members to engage with their local communities, particularly on issues requiring ecological knowledge. By providing insights that may lead to stronger ecologist-community partnerships, this session will help address key issues at the nexus of fundamental research, education, outreach, environmental justice and earth stewardship. This session is an outcome of the ongoing collaboration between a number of ESA initiatives and member sections including: Black Ecologists, Committee on Diversity and Education, Communications and Engagement, Education, Environmental Justice, Human Ecology, Inclusive Ecology, Latin American Chapter, Student Section and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Insights will contribute to a best practices guide being developed for ecologists working with communities. The session will companion several events with local community members including an interactive best practices workshop and field trips featuring collaborative engagement on justice issues.