SHRM Launches the Center for Inclusion & Diversity, a Research-Driven Evolution of CEO Action, Built for the Realities Employers Face Now

ORLANDO, Fla. — SHRM, the trusted authority on all things work, worker, and workplace, today announced the launch of the SHRM Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CID), a fundamental evolution of CEO Action for Inclusion & Diversity into a research-driven think tank and member community purpose-built for the legal, regulatory, and cultural environment employers are navigating today.

The Center is not a rebrand. It is a new operating model. Where CEO Action mobilized the largest business-led coalition committed to workplace inclusion, the Center builds the infrastructure that makes that commitment durable, producing original research, setting measurement standards, and translating evidence into practical tools leaders can defend in the boardroom, the courtroom, and in front of their workforce.

The transition completes a deliberate progression that began in October 2024, when SHRM assumed leadership of CEO Action from PwC, which led the coalition for nearly a decade. That move positioned SHRM to take a defining role on inclusion at a moment when many organizations were stepping back. The Center is the next chapter of that commitment.

“The Center exists because good intentions are not a legal strategy, and good intentions are not a measurement system,” said Carolynn Johnson, President of the SHRM Center for Inclusion and Diversity. “Employers today are navigating heightened legal scrutiny, fragile workforce trust, and unprecedented enforcement activity — all at once. They do not need more rhetoric. They need evidence, standards, and tools that work. Our mandate is precise: to help organizations build inclusion that is legally compliant, workplace unifying, and business accretive. That is what this moment demands, and that is what the workforce deserves.”

The Center is launching with a foundational research agenda grounded in a discipline that has too often been absent from this work—prioritizing evidence over ideology, results over rhetoric, and rigor over reaction. Its operating framework is clear and intentional: diversity is the input, civility is the process, and inclusion is the outcome. Every program the Center supports must meet three tests: legal compliance, workforce unity, and business accretion.

"Few things have made me prouder than watching SHRM step forward deliberately, and at a moment when many were stepping back — to lead on inclusion,” said Betty Thompson, Chair of SHRM Board of Directors. “The Center we are launching today is a game changer: a fundamentally different operating model, purpose-built for the realities employers actually face. And a center is only as serious as the leader who runs it. Carolynn Johnson's career reflects exactly what this Center stands for; an unwavering focus on quantifiable business outcomes. She is the leader this moment requires."

Johnson brings more than two decades of experience at the intersection of talent strategy, data analytics, and executive leadership. She most recently served as CEO of Fair360 (formerly DiversityInc), where she led a major transformation of its research and analytics platform and established a first-of-its-kind benchmarking partnership with Nasdaq. She has testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services on workplace fairness and holds an MBA from Rutgers Business School, along with advanced executive and technical certifications from Dartmouth and MIT.  

“The Center for Inclusion and Diversity represents SHRM doing what SHRM does best — bringing research, rigor, and practical guidance to the issues that define the modern workplace,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, President and CEO of SHRM. “Under Carolynn’s leadership, the Center will give leaders what they have been asking for: a credible, evidence-based partner that treats workplace inclusion as a business discipline, measured with the same rigor as any other core function.”

The SHRM Center for Inclusion and Diversity will announce its inaugural research, standards, and convenings in the coming months, including the BLUEPRINT for I&D Conference, November 15–18, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee.

About SHRM 

SHRM is a member-driven catalyst for creating better workplaces where people and businesses thrive together. As the trusted authority on all things work, SHRM is the foremost expert, researcher, advocate, and thought leader on issues and innovations impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM touches the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally. Discover more at SHRM.org.

About the SHRM Center for Inclusion & Diversity 

The SHRM Center for Inclusion and Diversity is a research-driven think tank and member community helping organizations build workplaces that are legally compliant, workplace unifying, and business accretive. Through original research, measurement standards, and practical advisory resources, the Center equips leaders to treat inclusion as a business discipline grounded in evidence. Learn more at https://www.shrm.org/center-for-inclusion-diversity.