Meet & Greet: Shane Windmeyer, CEO and Founder of Campus Pride

In this week's Meet & Greet interview, Campus Pride's founder and executive producer Shane Windmeyer, shares the history of Campus Pride, the challenges LGBTQ+ people still face as students and young employees, and how companies can work with organizations like Campus Pride to provide a safer, more inclusive environment for the community.

myGwork: Can you tell us a bit about your role at Campus Pride and career journey to date?

Shane: I am the founder of Campus Pride, and I founded the organization in 2001 as an online clearing house for LGBTQ+ students. As a young college student, I was oftentimes looking for resources when I was coming out, and so campus pride was a way for me to create an organization that would be there for young people who are LGBTQ+ and coming out and organizing on their campus. Shortly after graduating, I worked with a couple other of my colleagues in developing Campus Pride Net, which was the first iteration of Campus Pride. Since then, the organization has grown into a full fledge 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and we work with 1400 different college campuses across the country. We continually provide new programs and services to help create safer, more inclusive campus communities, as well as to help build future leaders amongst LGBTQ+ students.

myGwork: What's the biggest highlight of your career to date and why?

Shane: The biggest highlight of my career would be the fact that Campus Pride has now been around for 21 years. We celebrated our 20th anniversary last year, and I feel as though that's a huge accomplishment to have dedicated my personal and professional life to an organization that I founded. It continues to grow and continues to do really great work for the movement, as well as to help young people live their authentic selves and be all of who they are. Something I'm very proud of to date is the fact that Campus Pride is continually serving and helping people across the country.

myGwork: What are the main challenges that LGBTQ+ graduates face when looking for their first new role?

Shane: Campus Pride Career Connect is launching this November in the US, which is an online safe space portal for LGBTQ+ young people to be matched up with LGBTQ+ friendly companies; to help them find internships and jobs, but most importantly, to help them with job prep skills and career readiness and to be mentors and connectors to the workplace. I would say one of the challenges that LGBTQ+ young people face with any career is finding people who can support them, who are like them, or where they can see themselves in a particular job or career.

Oftentimes, LGBTQ+ young people are not sure if a certain field or industry is really open and accepting or affirming, for them to live their full, authentic self. One example might be aeronautics, maybe being a pilot