Meet our Chair and CEO
Ralph Singh, Chair, Wisdom Thinkers Network
Ralph Singh, Chair, Wisdom Thinkers Network; Convener. Author, Educator, Storyteller, and Community Builder. Ralph currently consults to develop curricula and resources to bring an understanding of shared values into schools, religious education, and public life, using the teachings and wisdom stories from the world’s spiritual traditions and cultures. He has authored or edited five books, including his own stories from his early days at Baba Virsa Singh ji’s feet, “A Path to Follow, A Life to Lead.” His latest project, “Stories to Light our Way, Journey to the World of Good” a Parents’ Choice award winning professionally produced audio CD of wisdom stories from 11 different traditions, is receiving great praise among educators and community groups as a way to foster a compassionate, engaged, pluralistic, civil society and achieve social cohesion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RIm_uH_q9Q
Ralph likes to be known as an ordinary person who continues to have extraordinary life experiences: from the powerful vision that drew him from New York to the feet of one of the world’s greatest spiritual masters, His Holiness Baba Virsa Singh, in India, where, at the age of 22, he became Babaji’s first foreign devotee, to his involvement in the community building efforts surrounding the post 9-11 arson attack on his spiritual community Gobind Sadan, USA, north of Syracuse, NY. www.gobindsadan.org
Over the last 40 years Ralph has devoted his time to forging community and working to find ways to define civil society. He has worked in education developing and teaching a course called “Exploring Spirituality”, helped design and name the “Schools of Character” project for the Central NY Education Consortium; His current curriculum, “Nurturing an Ideal Citizen of the State of Virtue,” employs stories from the world’s traditions to focus children and adults on strengthening their spiritual connection and their sense of unity.
Outside of running a successful business, Ralph coordinated programs aimed at breaking down barriers between the disabled and able-bodied communities, served as Chair of the City County Human Rights Commission, and, together with his wife Joginder, transformed “soup-kitchens” into “community meals” to break down class barriers and helped to develop community based farmers’ markets.
He helped pioneer educational programs for 1st generation Sikh youth in America and championed the rights of Sikhs following the Indian government’s attack on the Akal Takhat in India in 1984. Through the United Nations Association, Ralph helped establish CNYMUN, the Central New York Model United Nations Conference at Syracuse University, which now draws over 500 students from the United States and Canada, served on the National Council of UNA-USA under Fmr. U.S. Att’y General Elliot Richardson’s leadership, and on the advisory board of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs’ Program on Analysis and Resolution of Conflict. Concerned about the scourge of drugs and alcohol, he developed and coordinated drug awareness programs for local schools. Known for his efforts in building interfaith relations, he help launch and served as Vice-chair of the North American Interfaith Network, where he now chairs the Interfaith Education Committee and is an honorary lifetime board member. He was the founding President of Gobind Sadan, USA, and currently serves as Director of Publications and Public Relations for Gobind Sadan, and heads Gobind Sadan Publications where he also writes his original works while editing, and overseeing much of the translations of Babaji’s talks.
As long as Babaji was on this earth, Ralph served as His translator in international gatherings and as his representative at major conferences including the Millennium Peace Summit. He has lectured and written on the importance of values and spirituality in modern society, and has represented the teachings of the Sikh Gurus to national and international audiences from the Smithsonian Institution to local interfaith dialogues. He is a graduate of The Gunnery, received his degree in Japanese Area Studies from the University of Rochester, and maintains a lifelong study/practice of prayer and meditation and spiritual traditions.
