It was great to see >250 participants at the National Science Foundation Macrosystems Biology Investigator Meeting. Sydne led the organizing committee for the meeting and chose to focus this year’s meeting theme on diversity, equity, and inclusion in collaborative team science. The all virtual meeting this year enabled twice as many early career researchers to take part. Highlights were Bala Choudhary’s keynote on ’10 simple rules to an anti-racist lab’, Sparkle Malone’s keynote on her path to becoming an ecologist as a black woman, and lightning talks and posters of cutting edge science.