ABSTRACT The 9th Many Hosts of Mycobacteria (MHM9) meeting will be held at The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio March 8-10, 2022. This meeting is co-organized by Rich Robinson (OSU), Luanne-Hall Stoodley (OSU), Matthew Anderson (OSU), Michelle Larsen (Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Fred Quinn (University of Georgia), Liliana Salvador (University of Georgia) and John Spencer (Colorado State University). The purpose of the meeting series is to bring together basic researchers, clinicians, and human and animal health researchers that study mycobacterial diseases/hosts. The previous eight MHM meetings have been held at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA (2007), Gettysburg, PA (2008), the historic former leprosy sanatorium in Carville, LA (2009), Lowry Zoo in Tampa, FL (2011), Bethesda, MD (2012), Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA (2015), Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (2017), and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Bronx, NY (2019). These meetings are small (~90 attendees) and have open registration. A workshop format is used for the meetings to foster open and interactive discussion. The diverse perspectives are exemplified by inclusion of fourteen models (mouse, guinea pig, rabbit, badger, possum, ferret, mongoose, armadillo, fish, deer, cow, elephant, monkeys and humans) and both experimental and natural infections (Tuberculosis from M. bovis and M. tuberculosis; Leprosy from M. leprae; Johne’s Disease from M. avium paratuberculosis; general mycobacterial infections from M. ulcerans and nontuberculous mycobacteria). With an overarching theme of mycobacterial diseases and hosts, each meeting has had a specific focus: ‘Many Hosts of Mycobacteria’ (MHM1, 2007); ‘Immunopathology’ (MHM2, 2008); ‘Comparative Mycobacteriology’ (MHM3, 2009); Biomarkers (MHM4, 2011); Translational Science (MHM5, 2012); ‘Host Specificity and Disease Dynamics’ (MHM6, 2015), ‘Bringing Science into the Community’ (MHM7), and ‘Back to the Future’ (MHM8). The theme of the MHM9 meeting will be ‘Confounders of Mycobacterial Disease’ as there are multiple confounders which can (and often do) drive the transmission of mycobacterial diseases and impact mycobacterial disease surveillance, treatment and outcomes. We target inclusion of young investigators as speakers and moderators for these meetings to foster discussion of new ideas and allow for development of collaboration between research groups that do not typically interact with each other, and this year will focus on underrepresented groups such as Native Americans.