Sharon Fast Gustafson, General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), will deliver a keynote presentation at the 2nd annual National Faith@Work ERG Conference, Feb. 9-11, 2021. The conference – to be held virtually – brings together representatives of Fortune 500 companies who are members of faith-and-belief employee resource groups (ERGs). It also is a national convening point for workplace chaplains and corporate leaders interested in ethical leadership. (Conference registration opens week of Dec. 21.)
“We are honored to have General Counsel Gustafson 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 the EEOC General Counsel on how religious nondiscrimination and accommodation is integral to the success of American workplaces,” said Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.
The conference is co-sponsored 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. The 2021 program builds 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. The 2021 REDI Index will report on faith inclusion in Fortune 200 companies.
Gustafson was confirmed as EEOC General Counsel by the U.S. Senate on August 1, 2019 for a term ending in 2023. She is the first woman to serve as General Counsel at the EEOC. Gustafson has practiced employment law for 29 years. She earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, cum laude, and began her legal career in the labor and employment law group at Jones Day in Washington, D.C., where she practiced for four years. Prior to joining the EEOC, Gustafson advised and represented both employees and employers in employment-related legal matters as a solo practitioner in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Sessions
Religious nondiscrimination is good for business (EEOC GC)