To ensure as much as possible the proper identification, protection, conservation, and preservation of irreplaceable world heritage, the UNESCO Member States adopted in 1972 the Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (more commonly known as the World Heritage Convention). A conscious objective of the Convention from the beginning was to allow listed sites to be laboratories and exemplars for broader heritage practice. Knowledge about these examples resides most fully in the ICOMOS international network of world heritage practitioners and heritage experts. As the United States National Committee of ICOMOS, US/ICOMOS is a unique position to mobilize the extraordinary scientific and professional resources of ICOMOS and expertise about heritage in general and world heritage in particular and make them available for the benefit of US heritage practitioners, cultural resource managers and US sites. This Knowledge Community will be a forum for that exchange, running the full range of lessons learned and challenges faced in the identification and management of World Heritage sites and the engagement of the gateway communities that host them. In 2015 and 2016, the Community will also be a hub for expert consultation on the current process to update the US World Heritage Tentative List.