RFI Announces Montse Alvarado as 2024 Religious Freedom Impact Awardee

September 3, 2024, Washington, D.C. – The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) is pleased to announce Montse Alvarado as the recipient of this year’s Religious Freedom Impact Award. Established in 2022, the award is given on the occasion of RFI’s Annual Dinner to an individual who has demonstrated “consistent, effective, and innovative leadership in advancing religious freedom.”

Montse Alvarado is the President and COO of EWTN News, the global news service of the Eternal Word Television Network, where she oversees digital and print platforms including the Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and a lineup of television and radio news programs. She is also the founding anchor of EWTN News in Depth, which airs weekly and covers current events in the Catholic Church, politics, and culture from a Catholic perspective.

“Throughout her career, Montse Alvarado has been a strong, clarion voice for religious liberty in media, culture, and the courts,” said RFI President David Trimble. “She has steadfastly dedicated her time and talent to protecting the rights of not only her fellow Catholics, but of all people of faith in America.”

Prior to joining EWTN, Alvarado spent 14 years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where she was named COO & Executive Director in February 2017. Her tenure at Becket oversaw 12 religious liberty victories in the Supreme Court protecting the Little Sisters of the Poor, the rights of religious groups to choose their leaders, Muslim prisoners’ rights, Jewish schools’ and synagogues’ civil rights, and religious foster care agencies. The Wall Street Journal profiled Alvarado as “A defender of all religion, on the front lines of America’s culture wars.”

Alvarado serves on the boards of various non-profits, including the Catholic Information Center, Acton Institute, the Knights of Columbus Charitable Giving Fund, Benedictine College, and Patients’ Rights Action Fund, the leading advocate against the legalization of assisted suicide. She is also on the advisory council to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) and the GIVEN Institute; and advises the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops through their Religious Liberty Committee.

Alvarado has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, among other major publications. Born in Mexico City, she is fluent in Spanish and French.

To register and learn more about this year’s Annual Dinner honoring RFI Founder and President Emeritus Tom Farr, visit our event page.

The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) works to secure religious freedom for everyone, everywhere. RFI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C.