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Before Collyn Messier’s first day at 2U, their new manager gathered the team to practice pairing “they” with Collyn’s name. Messier, a business analyst at the education technology company’s Maryland headquarters, only learned about it afterward. “I’ve never felt more seen than in that moment,” they said, noting the relief of not having to teach colleagues about pronouns themselves.

Moments like that one trace back to structure. Messier is one of the global leaders of 2Q, the LGBTQIA+ Business Resource Network that 2U employees formed at the start of 2019. The network plans and hosts events, carries member concerns directly to the C-suite, and collaborates with the company’s other employee networks, including the Black Engagement Network and the Womxn’s Alliance Network.¹

A Leadership Bench That Spans Continents

In 2022, 2Q’s global leadership reflected the company’s footprint. Jess Samuels, then a product evangelist on 2U’s boot camp product team working remotely from outside Philadelphia, held the global chair role. Messier held the global advocacy chair, working with 2U’s diversity, equity, and inclusion team on listening sessions and processing spaces that were opened to members whenever news of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation broke. And in Cape Town, business analyst Mantedieng “Mantis” Mamabolo-Cunningham held a role the network created specifically to keep its decisions honest about geography: global ambassador, a voice in the room for members spread across continents.¹

That spring, 2U signed the Human Rights Campaign’s business statement opposing legislation targeting LGBTQIA+ people, and “Go Forth and PRIDE!” was adopted as the theme for the network’s U.S. Pride programming.²

Belonging, Office by Office

The network’s reach shows up in individual accounts from opposite ends of the company. In Cape Town, benefits manager Sheana Abrahams said, “From the first time I stepped into the 2U Cape Town office, I never ever felt like I needed to hide who I was.”² Michael Krüger, a learning designer who joined 2U after working as a lecturing assistant in philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch, pointed to the company’s policies as the draw: he didn’t have to go through a formal HR process to use his chosen name across the company. “I had never before come across such a trans-inclusive company in our country,” he said.³

In Denver, academic counselor Ren Dawe led a seminar on allyship best practices during the company’s 2022 Pride programming and heard back from people managers planning to fold the material into how they run their teams.³

The Case for Visible Leadership

The leaders themselves are direct about why representation inside a company is a business question. “If you aren’t in the room where decisions are made, then you can’t speak up when it’s needed,” Samuels said. Messier pointed to research linking DEI representation in leadership to higher employee satisfaction and better retention.¹ Mamabolo-Cunningham was candid about the cost of being, in their words, “the only” and “the first” in professional rooms.¹

The clearest sign of how 2Q connects culture to the company’s core business may be its course list. For Pride Month 2022, the network curated 28 online offerings from 2U’s university partners. The list ran from Stanford’s story-based Health Across the Gender Spectrum to inclusive leadership programs from Northwestern, the London School of Economics, and the University of Cape Town.² For a company whose stated mission is eliminating the back row in education, the network made its point in the company’s own medium: a syllabus.