CONTACT:
Ben DePasquale, West End Strategy Team
bdepasquale@westendstrategy.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 21, 2025
Following distinguished Biden Admin tenure at Department of Education, new role will build focus on partnerships across religious landscape
WASHINGTON, DC – Interfaith Alliance, a national leader in defending religious freedom and multi-faith democracy, announced today that Maggie Siddiqi is partnering with the organization as a Senior Fellow immediately following her service in the Biden Administration, where she served as Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education.
Siddiqi will lead a new body of work for the organization deepening and broadening partnerships across the American religious organizational landscape.
“At a very high-stakes moment for the future of religious freedom and faith-based advocacy in this country, we’re thrilled that Siddiqi will help us chart a course into the future,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. “Her impressive track record of forging strong ties across diverse religious communities makes her an important and respected leader in the broader interfaith movement, and we’re looking forward to working together to strengthen Interfaith Alliance’s nationwide impact.”
“I am honored and delighted to have the opportunity to support Interfaith Alliance’s efforts during this critical time in our nation’s history,” said Maggie Siddiqi, senior fellow at Interfaith Alliance. “I believe that the organization’s approach will provide a necessary antidote to the destructive and divisive Project 2025. Where some bad actors will choose to drive wedges between communities in order to drive us apart, Interfaith Alliance stands ready to strengthen cross-community partnerships to protect our pluralistic democracy.”
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.
Previously, she spent nearly a decade in national organizations serving American Muslim communities, with a focus on interfaith relations and faith-based advocacy. Siddiqi has a master’s degree in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in religion from Wesleyan University. She also earned graduate certificates in Islamic chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary and in nonprofit management from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
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Interfaith Alliance is a network of people of diverse faiths and beliefs from across the country working together to build a resilient democracy and fulfill America’s promise of religious freedom and civil rights not just for some, but for all. We mobilize powerful coalitions to challenge Christian nationalism and religious extremism, while fostering a better understanding of the healthy boundaries between religion and government. We advocate at all levels of government for an equitable and just America where the freedoms of belief and religious practice are protected, and where all persons are treated with dignity and have the opportunity to thrive. For more information visit interfaithalliance.org.