This workshop serves as a forum for personal exploration and reflection about the impacts of participant’s work within the scientific community in the context of fostering diversity and a sense of inclusiveness in the workplace. Participants will evaluate personal interactions with students, peers, and mentors and how those interactions affect the atmosphere in which we work. Participants will consider the relevance of diversity, tolerance, and inclusiveness in an academic community and more specifically, the role of the ecological community in promoting and supporting a welcoming and engaging environment for academic inquiry and debate. We will assess how well the Ecological Society of America currently fosters diversity and inclusiveness in a time where effective collaboration and synthesis are prevailing. Planned activities will generate opportunities for self-reflection and exploration regarding the importance of these issues for professional development. At the completion of this workshop, participants will have the means to return to their institutions able to foster and develop a more inclusive and diverse community in their labs and classrooms. **As this workshop is designed to remove participants from their comfort zone it is important to recognize the purpose of facilitating these discussions within a larger community. The workshop will be held in a private manner in order to ensure confidentiality among the participants and provide for a stimulating discussion on the nature of inclusiveness for the Ecological Society of America. All are welcome to attend.