The 74

For nearly a decade, Shaheena Simons led the division that fought for students’ civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her tenure encompassed President Donald Trump’s first term, a time when staff still addressed the “full range of complaints”  — from racial and gender discrimination to schools denying services to students with disabilities. Shaheena Simons was chief of the Educational Opportunities Section at the U.S. Department of Justice for nine years. Now she’ll co-chair an advisory council for the new Public Education Defense Fund. But to Simons, the Justice Department’s recent dismissal of a school desegregation order in Louisiana — at a time when racial and socioeconomic isolation continues — is a sign that the current administration has turned its back on students who don’t receive an equal education. It’s why she left the Educational Opportunities Section at the DOJ after 14 years in April.