PEOPLE/Board

Baljinder Kaur Narang
Baljinder Kaur Narang holds a Masters Degree in Health Education from Dalhousie University and has worked her professional career as an Occupational Therapist specializing in Community Rehabilitation and Drug & Alcohol Counselling. Currently she serves on the New Vista Society Trustee Board; 2012 BC Senior Games Nominating Committee; and City of Burnaby’s Social Sustainability Strategy Steering Committee. She also serves as President for Sikh Research Institute Canada and Panjab Digital Library Canada. She was elected as School Trustee in 2008 and serves as Vice Chair of the Burnaby Board of Education. She is chair, Youth & Community Services Committee; vice chair, Task Force on Sexually Exploited and At-Risk Youth; and member of the Education and Finance committees. She is also a member of the ESL Consortium of the Lower Mainland School Boards. She works tirelessly to support the important role public education plays in making healthy and vibrant communities.

Harminder Singh Jassal
Harminder Singh Jassal currently works with the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a Senior Budget Analyst. He is actively involved in Sikh affairs and has held positions in various capacities on the Boards of several non-profit, religious, charitable, and professional organizations. He joined the Sikh Research Institute’s Board of Advisors in 2008. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife, Simran, and two daughters, Manjot and Harleen.

Inder Jit Singh
Dr. Inder Jit Singh came to the United States in 1960 on a Murry & Leonie Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. He is a professor of anatomical sciences at New York University. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the United Sikhs, and as a trustee of the MBSK Foundation (New York). He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Sikh Review (Calcutta). He has authored four collections of essays on his journey as a Sikh in North America. Inder Jit Singh is a regular columnist on the online magazine sikhchic and has lectured extensively on interfaith issues.

Inderpreet Singh (Board Chair)
Inderpreet Singh is a technology professional currently working for a multinational technology firm as Director of Solutions. His passion is Sikhi and Sikh community related community projects and he is heavily involved with Sikh youth camps, retreats and conferences, where he conducts seminars, lectures and interactive workshops on Gurmat-related topics. Inderpreet has frequently spoken at Interfaith conferences and events. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Sikh Research Institute, Board of Advisor of Sikh Coalition, and a member of the Energy Conservation Commission for the Town of Chelmsford, MA.

Inni Kaur
Inni Kaur is Vice President of Spectrum Communications, an advertising and corporate design firm based in Norwalk, CN. A published poet, she is an active participant in Sikh community affairs, raising awareness on many key faith and women’s issues. She is on the editorial board of Nishaan and is an active board member of the Interfaith Council of Southern Connecticut. She also serves on the boards of the MBSK Foundation and the Namaskaar Foundation. Inni Kaur is is a published poet and a teacher at Guru Gobind Singh Academy of Norwalk, CT. She authored Journey with the Gurus, a children’s book about Guru Nanak Sahib. Born and raised in Kuwait, Inni Kaur lived in New Zealand, Australia and Greece before moving to the United States in 1982. She resides with her husband and family in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Mandhir Singh
Mandhir Singh has over 15 years of experience in Asset Management in the US. Before starting his own firm, Mach Advisors, LLC., he worked at HHR Asset Management, J. & W. Seligman & Co., and McKinley Capital Partners. Mandhir has an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a bachelor’s degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University, India. Mandhir has been very active on the social service area both through providing funding as well as contributing his own time. He was the Principal of Bridgewater Khalsa School. He also helped plan and implement a number of aspects in the school successfully such as setting up of the website, implementing Sojhi coursework, starting a Gurmat Sangeet program at School and starting a soup kitchen effort. He lives in Basking Ridge, New Jersey with his wife, Achint, and two children, Noor Kaur and Dayaal Singh. Mandhir Singh is also the Tri-State Area Coordinator for SikhRI.

Ravinder Singh
Ravinder Singh spent his formative years in Singapore and Delhi. He arrived in the US in 1976 and graduated from the Simon School of Management at the University of Rochester. He has worked with multinationals in Singapore, London and New York and currently works for a Financial Services company. Ravinder’s professional expertise includes leading technical and business consulting engagements: organizational change, transformation programs and building high performing cross functional and global teams. His consuming passion is Sikhs and Sikhi – in all flavors and dimensions. He is actively involved with the local Sangat in Columbus where he initiated a Gurbani Vicar group that has met weekly for over three years. He is also the founder/convener of the Talking Stick, a weekly online colloquium devoted to a dialogue around Gurbani that appears on Sikhchic.com. Since 1997, he has lived in Westerville, Ohio, with his wife, Harjit, and his daughter, Simran.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Harpreet Singh
Harpreet Singh is a PhD Candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University, where he specializes in South Asian religions. He was awarded the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching in 2007. He is the co-founder of the Sikh Coalition and Academic Room, a social enterprise that facilitates multidisciplinary engagements among scholars and curation of "open access" educational resources. In 2003, along with Desmond Tutu, Singh was honored with the James Parks Morton Interfaith Tribute by the Interfaith Center of New York for his work to help heal local communities on the grassroots level. Harpreet Singh received his Bachelor's degree in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer and Master of Theological Studies degree in South Asian Religions from Harvard Divinity School, where he was trained in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Urdu, French and German.

HS Kohli
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, HS Kohli moved to Delhi after the partition. In 1963, he left, driving 4000 miles in a Ford Zeffer to London, England. There he worked as a laborer until moving to Glasgow in 1972, where he opened a small wholesale business in The GORBALS in Glasgow. Seven years later, he made a foray to the United States, running businesses in in Texas. By 1989, he had moved back to West Street Glasgow and had opened a custom built wholesale distributor, employing 50 local staff members. Mr. Kohli retired in 2008 and enjoys spending time with his three children and three grandchildren.

Jagdeep Singh
In addition to serving on the BOA, Jagdeep Singh is the Area Coordinator for the United Kingdom. In this capacity, he organizes events and media coverage for SikhRI in London and surrounding areas. Jagdeep was pivotal in starting Liv webinars and his service towards SikhRI continues to be instrumental for global outreach activities at the organization and online development. He works for a media company in London.

Jaswinder "Jassi" Singh Chadha
Jassi is Founder and CEO of Axtria, a data analytics company. He is a pioneer in business analytics industry. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of TIE Global, and a member of Young Presidents Organization. He serves on the Board of Directors for Panjab Digital Library, and the Board of Directors of South Asian Pharmaceutical Council, as well as serving as a member of the advisory board of College of Computing at New Jersey Institute of Technology. In recognition of his leadership and entrepreneurial achievements, he won E&Y "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in 2004 and was included in the "Top Forty under Forty" by NJBiz Magazine in 2003. In 2009, Jassi was named to the PharmaVOICE 100, which recognizes the 100 most influential people in the life sciences industry. Jassi is an active and proud member of IIT Delhi Alumni and was awarded Distinguished Alumni Service Award by IIT Delhi in 2008. He received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1990, his M.S. in Industrial Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso in 1992, and was a Doctoral candidate in Operations Research at Texas A&M University until 1995.

Jotinder Singh Mann
Jotinder graduated with a major in Chemistry from Brandon University with greatest distinction. Upon graduation he received the Governor General’s Medal for highest standing Bachelor of Science program, and Gold Medal for highest standing last two years of Bachelor of Science Program, and a Silver Medal in Chemistry for highest standing for B.Sc majoring in Chemistry. He went on to complete his medical training at the University of Manitoba, after which he completed a Family Practice Residency at the University of British Columbia. He currently is a family physician and often has medical students and residents rotate through his clinic as he enjoys teaching. He also mentors IMG (international medical graduates) so that they may obtain recertification in Canada. He also helped start an organization called “I am Community,” which is run through a local high school and reaches out to single mothers and their children. He has been volunteering with Sikhri since the organization first brought programming to the lower mainland. He is a founder and a volunteer with the Pilot Sojhi School in BC that implements the Sohji curriculum developed by SikhRI. Jotinder lives with his wife, Parminder, and their two sons, Arjan and Raajan, in Surrey, British Columbia.

Kulvir Singh Gill
Kulvir Singh Gill was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from the University of Calgary with degrees in biology and commerce. After working for a top-tier management consulting firm and a major gold mining company, he has recently launched his own independent management consulting and coaching firm. In addition to his career, Kulvir has been actively involved in his local Sikh-Canadian community. He has served in leadership roles with the Sikh Centennial Foundation, Spinning Wheel Film Festival, and Toronto Sikh Youth Retreats. Currently, he's mobilizing a group of second-generation Sikh-Canadian youth to simultaneously launch several new non-profit organizations including the Sikh Arts Council and the Seva Food Bank. Kulvir serves on the Board of Directors for the William Osler Health System Foundation and Habitat For Humanity - Brampton. He is also a recipient of the 2010 Action Canada fellowship. Kulvir lives with his family in Brampton, Ontario. Kulvir Singh is also Greater Ontario Area (GTA) Coordinator for SikhRI.

Parminder "Par" Singh
Parminder (Par) Singh has more than 25 years of professional experience in building, operating, and managing international businesses for private companies, government clients, and multi-national corporations around the world. He is the currently the President of Intellectual Ventures Canada. Par sits on Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of British Columbia and DigiBC and is an advisor to Canada’s Centre for Wireless and Digital Health innovation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia and lives in Surrey, BC, with his wife, three children, two dogs, and an occasional goldfish.

Parveen Kaur Dhillon
Parveen Kaur Dhillon is an American-born Sikh and the author of My First Sikh Books, a set of board books designed to strengthen the pride and self-identity of young Sikh children. For several years, Parveen helped run the Lohgarh Retreat and is currently serving as a Director of the Lohgarh Sikh Educational Foundation. She was active in post-9/11 issues especially in the Bay Area, and helped draft the curriculum for The Sikh Next Door , a multimedia educational project about Sikhs in America. She has co-authored several resources to prevent bullying and is active in multiple Sikh community activities, including her local Khalsa Schools. Parveen holds a Masters in Education from the University of Virginia, and a BA in History and Asian Studies from Loyola University. She studied in Nanjing, China, as an undergraduate and taught English in Japan for the JET program. Her professional background is in Marketing and Business Development. Parveen was born in Virginia, raised in Maryland, and is settled in San Jose, California, with her husband, Mandeep, and three children, Tegh Zoraver Singh, Hazuri Kaur and Nivaaz Kaur.

Pritpal Singh
Dr. Pritpal Singh is a medical director with Cigna where he serves as mentor to health management teams by provid ing clinical insight and educational support. He lives in Dallas, TX, with his wife, Arpinder Kaur, and two sons, Insaf and Jivat. He also serves on the Board of Gurduara Singh Sangat and regularly is a guest speaker at local educational, religious, and social forums, which seek to create unity through diversity. Himself a product of Sikh camps and retreats, he facilitates workshops which aim to fight both religious and political oppression through reflection and self-introspection.

Tripat Singh
Tripat Singh is an East Asian medicine practitioner based in South Seattle. He has served in leadership roles with the Seattle Sikh Retreat (Kudarat), Sikh Coalition, West Coast Sikh Youth Alliance, and Gurduara Singh Sabha and has attended SikhRI's Sidak twice. Tripat is passionate about helping Sikhs connect with the broader Seattle community in a variety of forums. In addition to working with the Wing Luke Asian Museum to develop exhibits detailing Sikh-American diaspora stories, he regularly collaborates with local organizations advocating for social justice. Tripat lives with his wife, Jasmine, and dog ambassador to humanity, Momo Kaur.

Dr. Gurpal Singh Bhuller
Dr. Gurpal Singh Bhuller, an Orthopedic Surgeon in Chester, Virginia, has been with Sikh Research Institute’s Board of Directors since its inception. He grew up in Malaysia and did his medical training in India and New Zealand. After moving to the US in 1980, he has been involved in several Sikh organizations and charities. He is a collector of Sikh artifacts and coins and has authored “The Enquiring Guru”, published in 2006. Dr. Bhuller also serves on the board of Sikh Research Institute Canada.