Board Member Spotlights

Nadeem Siddiqi

Nadeem Siddiqi grew up in Knoxville and has lived here since 1977. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in Economics in 2002 and from Tayseer Seminary in 2016. He is currently a board member of the Muslim Community of Knoxville, Annoor Academy, American Center for Outreach, and Tayseer Seminary.
    
Nadeem also serves as a Muslim Chaplain in the local prisons and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for the Muslim Student Association. He is a student of Shaykh Hassan Lachheb and Ustadha Zaynab Ansari. He also serves as adjunct faculty for Tayseer Seminary where he teaches a course in activism.  He is a local investor in and advisor to businesses ranging from healthcare, IT services, real estate, and hospitality industries, including start-ups such as Yassin Falafel House and Wild Love Bakehouse. He sits on the board of the Lighthouse Fund, a local venture capital fund. 

Nadeem considers it a great pleasure and honor to work with such passionate and thoughtful people in the Department of Religious Studies, in times where religion, as always, is at the center of human experience and decision-making at all levels of society. He appreciates how the faculty help bring these topics to the students and wider community, in a much-needed academic fashion, to give them perspective and broader understanding in our complex world. He has enjoyed working on the Board of Visitors since 2014 and appreciates the opportunity to help launch an annual lecture in Islamic Studies.