As a matter of both policy and practice, US national parks take inclusive approaches to ecological research, education, and public engagement. They are public places that protect and celebrate our nation’s diverse natural, historic, and cultural heritage for the benefit of everyone. They are inherently complex social-cultural-natural systems whose management is informed by research and scholarship across a wide range of natural science and social science disciplines. And they provide endless opportunities for broad swaths of the public to participate in researching, learning, and protecting the places they care about. Because national parks explicitly engage diverse audiences (e.g., local communities, global visitors, different disciplines, underrepresented groups), they provide models for new ways to advance ecology and conservation. This session will describe several innovative approaches to inclusive engagement and place-based ecological research and conservation practice in national parks. Talks in this session will discuss innovative technology, citizen science, socio-ecological integration, workforce development, ecology of cultural landscapes, and other approaches that connect communities and ecosystems. Since parks are for everyone, subsequent conversation is guaranteed to be rich and rewarding.