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IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 26, 2022 | Washington DC

Andrea R. Lucas, Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), will deliver a keynote presentation at the 3rd annual National Faith@Work ERG Conference, May 23-25 2022. The overall conference – to be held in-person – is called Dare to Overcome, with the theme Better Together. It brings together representatives of Fortune 500 companies who are members of faith-and-belief employee resource groups (ERGs) in allyship with others with a special focus on disability inclusion.  The conference also is a national convening point for workplace chaplains and corporate leaders interested in ethical leadership. (Conference registration is open.)

Commissioner Lucas will speak on Best Practices to Prevent Religious Discrimination and Promote Religious Inclusion. RFBF’s Senior Corporate Advisor Kent Johnson, J.D., will moderate the session. Kent retired recently as Senior Counsel at Texas Instruments.

“We are honored to have Commissioner Lucas participate in the Faith@Work conference as a strong advocate for nondiscrimination on the basis of religion in America’s workplaces. It is a wonderful opportunity for companies to hear directly from a EEOC Commissioner about how religious nondiscrimination and accommodation is integral to the success of American workplaces,” said Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

Andrea R. Lucas was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 22, 2020, to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for a term expiring July 1, 2025. Before her appointment to the EEOC, Commissioner Lucas was a member of the labor and employment and litigation practice groups of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and was based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

The 2022 conference is co-convened by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC to support the growing movement of top companies that are adopting faith-friendly policies that make their workplaces religiously inclusive. Corporate sponsors include American Airlines, the official airline of Dare to Overcome, PayPal, Equinix, Ford Motor Company, and more to come!

The 2022 Dare to Overcome conference builds on previous conferences and includes: national and global awards for companies and CEOs advancing interfaith understanding and religious inclusion; expert and practitioner seminars; a Dare to Overcome Allyship Concert featuring the hit Gentlemen trio GENTRI; exhibition hall and resources on faith@work best practices.

The 2021 program built on the 2020 Faith@Work conference at the Busch School of Business in Washington, D.C., co-sponsored by American Airlines and Tyson Foods, and on the 2019 Faith@Work conference at the corporate HQ of Texas Instruments in Dallas, both cosponsored with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

During the conference, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation will release its annual Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Index, which benchmarks the state of corporate America’s inclusion of religion as an integral part of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

• Press Inquiries, contact:
• Religious Freedom & Business Foundation: media@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org or 410-268-7809
• EEOC Office of Communications: newsroom@eeoc.gov or 202-663-4191

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Thursday, Feb. 3rd, 12:00-12:30 pm ET / 9:00-9:30 am PT

Join us to hear from Google’s Barbara Villasenor* about the pathbreaking work of their Inter Belief Network (IBN). Could this be a model of religious inclusion for your company?

See related video.

At Google, there are currently 16 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) with more than 250 chapters globally – providing community, personal and professional development opportunities for Googlers from underrepresented communities.

Of these ERGs, Google’s Inter Belief Network (IBN) aims to create a culture of inclusion, tolerance, and mutual understanding at Google for a diversity of beliefs, where Googlers of all beliefs feel welcome, included, and supported.

IBN also aims to ensure that the voices of belief-based communities are represented in Google’s products.

IBN consists of multiple member chapters representing specific communities of interest, including but not limited to: Buddhists, Christians, Jewglers, and Muslims. IBN also has an interfaith chapter.

* Barbara Villasenor is a Founding Member & Global Chair of Google’s Inter Belief Network (IBN), Co-Lead of the Google Christian Fellowship chapter (GCF), and Economics Business Partner to Google’s Chief Economist. Barbara is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She seeks to strengthen employee relations, broaden product inclusion, and amplify the inclusive space by focusing on education, equity, and allyship.

Repost from Sue Warnke on LinkedIn: “Faith inclusion is thriving in 65+ Silicon Valley businesses, from Facebook to Google, Salesforce, PayPal and so many others. Grateful to Brian J. Grim and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation for assembling faith leaders last week like Roy Tinklenberg, Barbara Phillips, Becky Pomerleau, Rev. Greg McBrayer to discuss 2022 strategies for faith at work. Register for the third annual Faith ERG conference in Washington DC in May here: https://lnkd.in/gCB_YUZC #faithinclusion #faithatwork #faithdiversity

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is pleased to announce today that Equinix joins as a corporate sponsor of Dare to Overcome, our annual Faith@Work ERG conference. In 2022, Dare to Overcome will be an in-person gathering where Fortune 500 faith-and-belief employee resource groups (ERGs) come together to share best practices and build supportive, intersecting networks nationally and globally.

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company. They interconnect industry-leading organizations in finance, manufacturing, mobility, transportation, government, healthcare and education across a cloud-first world. Equinix’s has 220+data centers in 60+ markets from Mumbai to Dublin, Singapore to Chicago, and Helsinki to San José.

“I’m thrilled to have Equinix come on board as a Diamond Sponsor of Dare to Overcome,” said RFBF President Brian Grim. “Their FaithConnect employee resource group has taken off in the past year, and despite the remote work during the pandemic, FaithConnect has been instrumental in bringing not only their own people together but other companies to connect on issues related to faith and belief. I’m looking forward to the panels they are putting together for Dare to Overcome showcasing how companies collaborate on religious inclusion!”

The 2022 theme is “Better Together,” reflecting an emphasis on being strong allies of others — with a special focus on those with differing abilities. Dare to Overcome will be held in Washington DC in partnership with the Busch School of Business, May 23-25, 2022, and then move onwards to India in 2023.

“The three pillars of FaithConnect are Invite, Learn and Respect. Our mission is to inspire a culture of learning and respect for all faiths, non-faiths and worldviews in the workplace and we believe that by celebrating spiritual diversity, employees can bring their whole authentic selves to work,” said Marsie Sweetland, Client Executive and Founder of Equinix FaithConnect.

“FaithConnect is thrilled to sponsor and participate in the 2022 Dare to Overcome conference. We have partnered with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundations for in-office training and events and we look forward to joining for another year of this outstanding conference,” said Sweetland.

American Airlines is the global partner and official airline of Dare to Overcome.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, Executive Vice President at Freedom House, cites the work of the Institute for Economics & Peace and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation which found that countries with “greater religious freedoms are generally more peaceful, whereas countries with less religious freedom are generally less peaceful,” in her article ‘Religious Freedom Can Teach Us About Strengthening American Democracy.’ In the article for the George W. Bush Presidential Center, she details how protections for religious belief offer a crucial lesson for strengthening American democracy and addressing growing societal rifts.

One of the pressing religious liberty issues of the day is a deeply troubling increase in antisemitism in the United States. On Monday, Jan. 10, at 12 pm ET, EEOC Commissioners Andrea Lucas and Keith Sonderling participated in an important conversation hosted by the Louis D. Brandeis Center about combatting antisemitism in the workplace.

Watch the Webinar Here!

See the Commissioners’ PowerPoint presentation here

Related Content: Religious Nondiscrimination is Good for Business

(Washington DC, Feb. 10, 2021) –  Sharon Fast Gustafson, EEOC’s General Counsel at the time, delivered a keynote presentation at the 2021 national Faith@Work ERG Conference on why religious nondiscrimination is good for business and explained the legal obligations relating to religious nondiscrimination and accommodation in the workplace. Watch below or read her prepared comments. Read prepared comments.

As the world endured the pandemic, we’ve seen the world moving into a new direction. Business organizations realized a global tipping point that has made them work with people in different religious affiliations.

In this episode, Brian Grim, the founding president of the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, shares the benefits of expressing religious freedom in the community and in the workplace.

It has always been Brian’s advocacy to create working environments where people are at liberty to practice and exhibit their faith. By doing these, organizations establish success via great teamwork and retention. They know how to nurture an employee based on faith and beliefs.

Brian also shares the 9 principles that guides his way of thinking. These principles motivate people to live the kind of life that God wants us to live. It involves being mindful, excellent, caring, finding God in all things and so much more.

If you want to learn more how companies maximize the skills and talents of their employees via faith motivation, this inspiring episode is for you.

• — The response of various religious affiliations to COVID-19 (01:50)
• — The miraculous timing of the business organization’s conference (03:30)
• — Bringing religious freedom in the Soviet Union (09:10)
• — The mysteries of faith (13:15)
• — How the Jesuits brought change to the world (16:55)
• — 9 principles that guide Brian’s way of thinking (18:35)
• — Narrowing the gap of having religious freedom in the community (31:13)
• — How to encourage opportunities for authenticity in the workplace (34:12)
• — Q&A with Brian Grim (36:17)

by Brian Grim

Yesterday, I met actor and producer Neal McDonough, known for appearing in movies like Marvel’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” and TV shows like HBO’s “Band of Brothers”, “Suits” and CW’s “Arrow.” He is a husband and father of five, a devout Catholic.

As the Salt Lake Tribute reports, “And right now, he is the narrator of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s annual Christmas concert, which is being taped before limited audiences for airing on PBS at holiday time in 2022. And McDonough has no issue teaming up with the premier performing troupe of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“We spend so much time as humans worrying about what the right church is,” he said Friday. “By bridging [Latter-day Saints and Catholics] together, it shows that whatever it takes to glorify God and to be better human beings in his eyes is the goal of any religion and any belief.”

“Whether you’re Catholic or Mormon, Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist or agnostic or atheist, [this show] is a chance for us all to figure out ‘how can we be better on this planet?’” he said. “We’re all brothers and sisters in the eyes of God.”

Read full story.

Also at the meeting with McDonough organized by Ron Gunnell (Executive Producer Talent, for the Choir), were Bill and Karla Ahmanson, and my wife, Julia Beth.