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IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2026, Lorna Coury Named 2026 ERG Leader of the Year at National Faith@Work Conference

Washington, DC — The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) is pleased to announce that Lorna Coury, Executive Director at Consumers Energy, has been named the 2026 ERG Leader of the Year. The award was presented on May 20, 2026, at the annual Dare to Overcome (DTO) Faith@Work ERG Conference, held at The Busch School of Business in Washington, DC.

The Faith-ERG Leader of the Year Award recognizes exceptional leadership in advancing faith-friendly and belief-inclusive workplaces. The honor is presented annually among peers, including Fortune 500 ERG leaders and global executives, who are shaping the future of workplace inclusion through research, innovation, and practical leadership.

Coury was recognized for her visionary leadership in founding and growing the Interfaith Employee Resource Group (ERG) at CMS Energy and Consumers Energy, an initiative that has become a model for faith inclusion across corporate America.

“Few leaders embody the spirit of this award as consistently and courageously as Lorna,” said Brian J. Grim, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and Global Chair of Dare to Overcome. “She has not only built a thriving interfaith community within her organization, but has also helped create a blueprint for other companies seeking to foster respect, belonging, and collaboration across differences.”

Founded in 2022 after nearly two years of research and development, the Interfaith ERG has grown to more than 500 members and continues to expand. Under Coury’s leadership, the group evolved from a startup initiative into a structured, sustainable program with measurable impact, including the development of bylaws, strategic goals, and ongoing programming.

A hallmark of Coury’s leadership is her innovative “Faith and Belief Communities” model, which supports distinct religious and belief identities while fostering unity across differences. These communities include Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, and other groups, and they provide meaningful opportunities for connection, education, and celebration while remaining open to employees of all faiths, as well as those who identify as atheist or agnostic.

Through initiatives such as interfaith learning sessions, leadership outreach, prayer and meditation spaces, and company-wide celebrations, Coury has helped normalize conversations about faith at work and strengthen a culture of respect and belonging. Her efforts have also advanced organizational practices aligned with leading benchmarks for religious inclusion.

Beyond her company, Coury has become a trusted resource for organizations across industries seeking to establish faith-oriented ERGs. Her willingness to share best practices and mentor others has contributed to a growing movement of workplace inclusion grounded in respect for religious diversity.

“Lorna’s leadership demonstrates that faith inclusion is not only possible in today’s workplace, it is essential,” Grim added. “Her work strengthens organizations by fostering empathy, engagement, and a deeper sense of shared purpose.”

The Dare to Overcome conference, now in its seventh year, brings together leaders from Fortune 500 companies, global organizations, and academic institutions to explore how faith-inclusive cultures drive innovation, resilience, and ethical leadership.

Past recipients of the ERG Leader of the Year Award include leaders from Google, American Airlines, Dell Technologies, and Equinix.

About the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the global business community on the positive contributions of religious freedom to the workplace, marketplace, and society.

Media Contact:
Brian J. Grim, Ph.D.
President, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
email
+1.410.268.7809

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: REDI Index 2026 Recognizes Industry Leaders Advancing Faith-Friendly Workplaces Across the U.S.

Washington DC — May 20, 2026 — Today, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) recognizes the 2026 U.S. Faith-Friendly Workplace ‘REDI’ Index honorees, honoring leading organizations across sectors that are setting the standard for faith-friendly workplaces.

This year, we are recognizing participating organizations by industry sector, highlighting how faith-friendly workplace leadership is emerging across multiple areas of business and industry.

The progress among sectors highlights a powerful trend: faith inclusion is no longer confined to a narrow set of industries. Instead, leading employers across technology, consulting, finance, manufacturing, energy and utilities are embedding faith-friendly practices into their workplace cultures, strengthening employee engagement, innovation, and organizational performance.

2026 U.S. Honorees

• Accenture — Professional Services
• Equinix — Digital Infrastructure
• Intuit — Financial Technology
• Dell Technologies — AI Infrastructure
• Merck — Biopharmaceuticals
• Consumers Energy — Energy & Utilities
• Salesforce — AI CRM Business
• AZZ — U.S. Manufacturing

Key Takeaways

Faith-friendly workplaces span multiple sectors
The 2026 honorees demonstrate that faith inclusion is not industry-specific. From manufacturing and energy to professional services, and from cutting-edge technology and to biopharmaceuticals, organizations recognize that supporting employees’ religious identities contributes to a more inclusive and productive workplace.

A competitive advantage in today’s workforce
Companies that actively support faith inclusion are seeing tangible benefits, including improved employee wellbeing, stronger retention, and enhanced reputation (see research). In an increasingly values-driven labour market, faith-friendly policies are emerging as a key differentiator in attracting top talent.

Alignment with core organizational values
Each of this year’s honorees exemplifies how faith inclusion aligns with broader corporate values such as respect, integrity, belonging, and purpose. By embedding these principles into workplace culture — through employee resource groups, spiritual care, inclusive policies, and leadership commitment — these organizations are translating values into action.

Awards Ceremony

The 2026 U.S. Faith-Friendly Workplace Awards will be held at Dare to Overcome in Washington DC at the Busch School of Business, Catholic University of America, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.

This event will bring together business leaders, diversity professionals, and faith advocates to celebrate progress and share best practices.

About the Faith-Friendly Workplace ‘REDI’ Index

The Faith-Friendly Workplace Index benchmarks organizations on their commitment to religious inclusion and faith-friendly workplace practices. It provides a framework for companies to evaluate and improve how they support employees of all faiths and beliefs.

For media enquiries, please email us.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2026 | Washington, DC: The REDI Monitor 2026 7th Annual Report highlights a significant shift in how leading companies communicate faith inclusion publicly. Across both Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 firms, public-facing references to religion and belief declined between 2025 and 2026, particularly in website language, visual storytelling, and supporting content. At the same time, underlying organisational structures — especially faith-oriented employee resource groups (ERGs) — proved far more stable, suggesting that companies are not abandoning faith inclusion, but rather recalibrating how visibly they communicate it.

U.K. REDI Index Press Release (link)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Religious Freedom & Business Foundation Releases Groundbreaking Global Study on Faith, Human Values, and Corporate Success

New international research finds the world’s leading companies consistently prioritize deeply human virtues traditionally cultivated by faith and belief traditions.

Washington DC — The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) today released a first-of-its-kind global study examining the relationship between corporate values and the human virtues historically cultivated across faith and belief traditions.

The report, Faith, Belief, and the Future of Corporate Culture, analyzed the publicly stated corporate values of 400 leading companies across the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, and China. The findings reveal striking global convergence around values such as innovation, integrity, collaboration, responsibility, trust, people focus, and belonging.

The study argues that these human-centered virtues are becoming increasingly important in an era shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, declining institutional trust, workforce fragmentation, and growing employee demand for meaning and purpose at work.

“Technology can increase efficiency, but it cannot generate trust, integrity, belonging, or moral responsibility on its own,” said Brian J. Grim, Ph.D., president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and co-author of the report. “Our research suggests that the world’s leading companies increasingly depend upon deeply human virtues that faith and ethical traditions have cultivated for centuries.”

Unlike many discussions surrounding religion in the workplace, the report does not focus primarily on religious accommodation or legal compliance. Instead, it presents a new strategic framework for understanding why faith-friendly workplace cultures may strengthen organizational performance, resilience, ethical leadership, employee engagement, and long-term trust.

Among the report’s major findings:

• • Innovation emerged as the single most common corporate value globally.
• • Integrity ranked among the top values in every region studied.
• • People-focused cultures, collaboration, and responsibility appeared consistently across political systems, industries, and cultural traditions.
• • European firms placed stronger emphasis on sustainability and corporate citizenship.
• • Southeast Asian firms demonstrated stronger relational and collaboration-oriented values.
• • Chinese firms strongly emphasized innovation alongside stability, integrity, and collective responsibility.
• • American firms strongly emphasized innovation, integrity, customer focus, and agility.

The report also explores how major faith and belief traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Humanism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism, cultivate many of the same virtues modern organizations increasingly recognize as essential to long-term success.

RFBF says the findings may help explain why conversations surrounding faith-friendly workplaces are gaining greater strategic relevance globally.

“This research suggests that faith-friendly workplaces are not simply about inclusion,” said Melissa E. Grim, J.D., co-author of the report. “They are also about helping organizations strengthen the human foundations that technology alone cannot provide.”

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH

• • First global study connecting corporate values and faith-based human virtues
• • Why AI may increase the importance of trust, ethics, belonging, and human-centered leadership
• • How leading corporations across China, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States converge around similar human values despite cultural differences
• • Why innovation depends upon human character and organizational trust, not technology alone
• • The emerging business case for faith-friendly workplace cultures
• • How global companies increasingly prioritize integrity, people focus, and responsibility alongside performance
• • Why meaning, purpose, and belonging are becoming strategic workplace issues
• • The role of ethical and philosophical traditions in shaping resilient organizational cultures

The full report, Faith, Belief, and the Future of Corporate Culture, is available from the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

About the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the global business community about the positive contributions that faith and freedom of belief bring to workplaces, economies, and society. Founded by Brian J. Grim, Ph.D., RFBF works globally with businesses, policymakers, and organizations across religious and nonreligious backgrounds.

Media Contact: EMAIL

Who will be recognized as the most faith-friendly workplace in the Global Fortune 500?
Which organizations will lead their sectors in manufacturing, energy, technology, and beyond?
And who will receive the 2026 Interfaith ERG Leader of the Year award?
Find out May 20 in Washington, DC.

Register today, only a few tickets left!

Is Corporate America becoming more (or less) open to religion in the workplace?
And is Britain following the same path?

New research suggests something important is unfolding—but not in the way many might expect.

Next week, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation will release a new report offering the first multi-year benchmark of how Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies are signaling faith and belief inclusion.

Drawing on several years of data and extensive analysis of corporate communications, the findings point to a story that is still taking shape.

In some areas, signals of faith and belief appear to be expanding. In others, they seem to be shifting or becoming less visible. And between the United States and the United Kingdom, emerging differences raise new questions.

So what is really happening?

• — Are companies increasingly embracing faith and belief as part of workplace culture?
• — Or are they redefining how that inclusion is expressed?
• — Why do some signals appear stronger while others become quieter?
• — And what might this mean for the future of leadership, trust, and belonging at work?

The answers are not simple.

A shift worth watching

This research explores not only what companies are saying publicly, but how those signals relate to deeper workplace practices.

Are organizations expanding their commitment to faith and belief inclusion? Or are they becoming more selective in how they communicate it? The full picture reveals patterns that challenge easy assumptions.

Be the first to see the findings

On May 20, 2026, at the 7th Annual Fortune 500 Faith@Work ERG Conference, Dare to Overcome, we will unveil the full results.

The report includes:

• — Multi-year trends across the Fortune 500
• — Comparative insights from the FTSE 100
• — Analysis of emerging and shifting signals
• — Practical implications for business leaders

Join us in Washington, DC to be among the first to see the results.

We will also recognize leading companies that are shaping workplaces where people of all beliefs can contribute fully.

Something is changing beneath the surface.
On May 20, we will show what it means.

The 2026 UK Faith-Friendly Workplace ‘REDI’ Index Awards recognise organisations that are setting the benchmark for faith inclusion across industries. In this video hear from interfaith leads at NATS (Ridgely Johnson), Thames Water (David Law), and AWE (Sharon Lacey and Chloe Wells).

This year’s awards highlight a powerful trend: faith inclusion is no longer confined to a single industry. Instead, leading employers across aviation, consulting, finance, retail, energy, utilities, and government are embedding faith-friendly practices into their workplace cultures—strengthening employee engagement, innovation, and organisational performance.

2026 UK REDI Index Honourees

• AWE — Top in UK Government Sector
• Baringa — Top in UK Management Consulting
• EY UK — Top among UK Big Four
• John Lewis Partnership — Top in UK Retail
• NATS — Top in UK Aviation Industry
• Nationwide — Top in UK Financial Services
• OVO Energy — Top in UK Energy Sector
• Thames Water — Top in UK Utilities

Key Takeaways

Faith-friendly workplaces span multiple sectors

The 2026 honourees demonstrate that faith inclusion is a cross-industry priority. From infrastructure and energy to professional services and retail, organisations are recognising that supporting employees’ religious identities contributes to a more inclusive and productive workplace.

A competitive advantage in today’s workforce

Companies that actively support faith inclusion are seeing tangible benefits, including improved employee wellbeing, stronger retention, and enhanced reputation. In an increasingly values-driven labour market, faith-friendly policies are emerging as a key differentiator in attracting top talent.

Alignment with core organisational values

Each of this year’s honourees exemplifies how faith inclusion aligns with broader corporate values such as respect, integrity, belonging, and purpose. By embedding these principles into workplace culture — through employee resource groups, inclusive policies, and leadership commitment — these organisations are translating values into action.

Awards Ceremony

The 2026 UK REDI Index Awards was hosted by EY UK at its Canary Wharf office in London on Monday, 10 April 2026.

Read more here.

We’re thrilled to have an amazing group of sponsors for this year’s Dare to Overcome Fortune 500 Faith@Work ERG Conference. Thank you all!

If you’re not yet registered, please do so now — tickets are going fast!

Featured Plenary at the 7th Annual Dare to Overcome Faith@Work ERG Conference
May 20–21, 2026 | Washington, D.C.

As part of the 7th Annual Dare to Overcome Faith@Work ERG Conference, attendees will have the unique opportunity to explore one of the most innovative and forward-looking leadership initiatives in business education today: the annual Faith and Belief at Work Case Competition hosted by the BYU Marriott School of Business MBA Program. Dare to Overcome is the premier gathering of Fortune 500 leaders advancing faith-inclusive cultures that drive innovation, resilience, and ethical leadership, making this plenary a natural fit for companies seeking to shape the future of workplace inclusion and emerging talent.

This engaging session will feature perspectives from corporate leaders and student participants who have experienced firsthand how the competition is preparing the next generation of business leaders to navigate complex workplace challenges at the intersection of faith, values, inclusion, ethics, and emerging technologies. Recent case topics have explored issues involving AI, culture, and global workforce inclusion, challenging students to think beyond traditional business frameworks and engage the human dimensions of leadership, trust, and belonging.

Participants from institutions including the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and Yeshiva University have described the experience as transformational, highlighting the opportunity to collaborate across faith traditions and worldviews while tackling real corporate challenges. Through moderated discussion and firsthand insights, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of why this initiative continues to grow in relevance among leading business schools and employers alike.

The session will also explore how companies can partner with the competition to mentor, recruit, and shape emerging talent while strengthening faith and belief literacy as an increasingly essential leadership competency in today’s global workplace. Whether you are an ERG leader, HR executive, DEI practitioner, or business leader, this plenary offers valuable insight into how the next generation of leaders is learning to build workplaces where employees can truly bring their whole selves to work.