Shiwali Patel

Shiwali leads policy development and advocacy, litigation, and education addressing gender-based harassment in schools, including sexual harassment and sexual assault. She also works to strengthen civil rights protections for LGBTQ students and works on Title IX religious exemptions and other issues of gender equity in education. Previously, she was at the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where she worked on civil rights policy and legal guidance interpreting Title IX’s anti-discrimination protections, including schools’ responsibilities in responding to sexual harassment, protections for transgender students, and the rights of girls of color. Before joining OCR, Shiwali was an Administrative Judge and investigator at the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Hearings and Appeals, a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Unit, and a law clerk to the Honorable Laura A. Cordero at the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. Prior to law school, Shiwali was a community educator at the District of Columbia Rape Crisis Center, where she conducted workshops and educational presentations for adults and young people on sexual assault, domestic and dating abuse, and sexual harassment, and was a trained hotline counselor and hospital advocate.