Dr. Simran Jeet Singh is an educator, writer, activist, and scholar who speaks regularly on issues of diversity, inclusion and equity.Simran is currently based at Union Seminary, and he’s the first Sikhwire-service columnist in US history. He is the author of Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Run a Marathon, which is the first-ever children’s book from a major publisher (Penguin Random House) to center a Sikh story. Simran is also writing an adult non-fiction book for Riverhead(Penguin Random House) on Sikh wisdom to help navigate today’s contentious world.

While he is an accomplished professor with graduate degrees from Harvard and Columbia, Simran uses personal stories, dad-jokes, and a love for pop culture to connect with people where they are. That’s because he understands that marginalized groups will not lecture their way into dignity and that empathy is really built when we connect with one another as human beings. Simran connects with a diversity of audiences by bantering on Twitter(where he has 80,000+ followers), doing on-air commentary on programs like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and hosting Spirited, a new podcast on faith and spirituality. Audiences are disarmed by Simran’s humor and inspired by his hopeful vision for a more loving, peaceful world.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Simran is a diehard Spurs fan and an avid marathoner. He lives in Manhattan, New York with his wife and two daughters.