Inclusive Learning Environments for Religiously Diverse Students

Renee Bradley, Education Program Specialist
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, US Department of Education
Renee Bradley, Ph.D., has over thirty-five years of experience in special education. She began her career as a teacher of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. During those eight years she worked in a variety of settings from self-contained to an inclusion program to providing homebound services working with children preschool through high school. After working in a teacher training master’s program for non-traditional students, Renee joined the U.S. Department of Education in 1997.  In the Office of Special Education Programs, she served as the project officer for the National Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions, coordinated the OSEP Attract, Prepare and Retain Personnel Initiative, the Learning Disabilities Initiative, and the Partnership Project.  Renee moved to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2022 to work on social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health issues, creating positive and supportive school climates, and recovery from school violence incidents.  Renee has written and contributed to numerous publications and is a frequent presenter on education issues. Renee has a bachelors and master’s in special education from the College of Charleston and her Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy from the University of South Carolina.

William Desmond, Senior Counsel, Office of General Counsel
U.S. Department of Education
William (Will) Desmond is Senior Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education. Will advises Department officials on a range of regulatory and litigation matters involving federal civil rights law, constitutional law, and administrative law. Will previously served as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to that, he worked in private practice at an international law firm based in Washington, D.C. Will has substantial experience in complex litigation as well as government and internal investigations and has counseled corporate and nonprofit clients, including educational institutions and trade associations. Will obtained a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Navin Pant, Special Litigation Counsel
U.S. Department of Justice
Navin Pant is a Special Litigation Counsel in the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.  Navin works on a range of cases and matters to advance the Section’s enforcement of federal civil rights laws protecting students from discrimination in public elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities.  Before joining the Civil Rights Division as a trial attorney in 2015, he worked as a staff attorney at a nonprofit civil rights organization in New York City, as a litigator in private practice, and as a law clerk in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Navin received his J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Maggie Siddiqi, Director
Center for Faith Based & Neighborhood Partnerships, U.S. Department of Education
Maggie Siddiqi was appointed to lead the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education in May 2022. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, Maggie Siddiqi served as senior director of the Religion and Faith team at the Center for American Progress, where she led the organization’s work on religious liberty and engaged a coalition of diverse faith leaders to advance progressive policies. Prior to that, Siddiqi spent nearly a decade in national organizations serving American Muslim communities, with a focus on interfaith relations and faith-based advocacy. Siddiqi started her career by interning for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX) and serving as a field organizer in President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. She has a master’s degree in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in religion from Wesleyan University. Siddiqi also earned graduate certificates in Islamic chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary and in nonprofit management from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.