Sapreet Kaur, Executive Director (National)

Sapreet is the Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition, and has been in this role since September 2009. She was a member of the Coalition's Board of Directors for two years prior to joining the organization as staff.

Sapreet previously served as the Managing Director of Strategy within the Human Assets team at Teach for America (teachforamerica.org), a national non-profit whose mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort. At Teach for America, Sapreet was responsible for facilitating the formulation and evolution of human capital priorities and strategies covering areas such as compensation, staff retention, organizational strength, and employee satisfaction.

She volunteers with the Girl Scouts of the USA (girlscouts.org) and serves as a board member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (wagggsworld.org), a 10 million member worldwide movement across 135 countries providing non-formal education where girls and young women develop leadership and life skills through self-development, challenge and adventure. Sapreet is also a member of the National Organization of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, having served as a business volunteer in Uganda and Kenya from 1998-2001. She previously served on the Board of Directors of Fellowship of Activists to Embrace Humanity (fatehworld.org), a human development organization committed to fighting poverty and promoting education in South Asia.

Sapreet is a graduate of the Stern School of Business at New York University with a dual degree in marketing and international business.

Amardeep Singh, Director of Programs (National)

Amardeep Singh is the co-founder of the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States. He currently serves as its Director of Programs where he oversees the Coalition's use of litigation, advocacy, and community organizing to advance social justice goals.

Amar has represented dozens of Sikh victims of airport profiling, employment discrimination, and hate crimes since the organization's inception after 9/11. Along with Department of Homeland Security officials, he helped to formulate guidelines governing the searches of Sikh passengers in U.S. airports. His work also led to the formulation of a regulation protecting 1.1 million New York City public school students from bias-based harassment in schools.

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Harsimran Kaur, Legal Director (Fremont, CA)

Simran joined the Sikh Coalition as a Staff Attorney in February of 2007 and moved into the Legal Director position in 2008. As Legal Director, Simran is responsible for all of the Coalition's legal cases, and litigates a docket of high impact cases that seeks to safeguard the civil rights of Sikhs and other minorities. Simran is recognized as a national expert on the rights of Sikhs in the workplace, and has been asked to speak on the subject by the American Bar Association and the National Employment Lawyers Association.

Simran has been an active volunteer for the Sikh Coalition since its founding. She previously worked with the Coalition in an "of counsel" capacity, assisting with lobbying efforts and acting as a liaison to federal agencies. Before joining the Coalition, Simran was an associate at Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, LLC, a litigation boutique firm specializing in federal civil rights matters and race-based employment discrimination in Washington, DC. During her tenure, she litigated individual, multi-plaintiff, and complex class action cases. Simran also held a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Alfred Nance of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, where she worked on a variety of civil and felony criminal matters.

Prior to her legal career, Simran did anti-poverty work in Philadelphia, PA. She obtained her Juris Doctor from the George Washington University Law School and Bachelor of Arts in History from Haverford College.

Manbeena Kaur, Education Director (New York City)

Manbeena Kaur was born in San Francisco, CA but has lived most of her life in Fort Worth, TX. She joined the Sikh Coalition team as Operations Manager in 2006. Since then, she has been promoted to Education Director, a new position at the Coalition. The education program seeks to create a positive image and foster appreciation for Sikhs around the country by engaging in nationwide and community-based educational initiatives.

With a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Texas at Austin, Manbeena has taught in Texas and New York. Manbeena also worked at the American Embassy School in New Delhi. She has previously served in various leadership roles including serving on the planning committee for the Surat Sikh Conference for three years and organizing various youth focused projects both in New York and Texas.

Rajdeep Singh, Director of Law and Policy (Washington, D.C.)

Rajdeep Singh joined the Sikh Coalition in December 2009 and serves as its Director of Law and Policy. As Director of Law and Policy, he focuses on developing and promoting policy solutions for civil rights issues through an interdisciplinary combination of government affairs, media relations, and interfaith coalition building. In this capacity, he has substantively engaged with the U.S. Congress, White House, and several federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State; led successful efforts to pass equal employment opportunity legislation in Oregon and California; published articles in the Washington Post and New York Times; appeared on numerous television and radio programs; and delivered dozens of presentations at government agencies, law schools, and universities.

Rajdeep has a background in bank regulation and is the author of The Application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to Appearance Regulations that Presumptively Prohibit Observant Sikh Lawyers from Joining the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, which was published by the Chapman Law Review in 2007, and How State Photo Identification Standards Can be Used to Undermine Religious Freedom, which was published by the Asian American Law Journal at UC Berkeley Law School in 2012. He earned his law degree in 2006 at the College of William & Mary and received his undergraduate degree in philosophy in 2003 at the University of Miami.

Tejpreet Kaur, Social and Community Services Manager (New York City)

Simran Kaur, Advocacy Manager (Fremont, CA)

Simran joined the Sikh Coalition as Advocacy Manager in September 2011 and is charged with leading our outreach and advocacy efforts in California as they relate to our national agenda.

Prior to joining the Sikh Coalition, Simran managed a health program for Children's Hospital Central California. Simran travels regularly for global health projects and has worked to improve access to health for immigrant and refugee communities. She is an active member of the Sikh community in California, volunteering with Jakara Movement and co-founding The Langar Hall - a progressive Sikh blog. Simran is also a Core Member of the Sikh Feminist Research Institute, is Community Liaison for Saffron Press (an independent publishing house focused on multicultural literature with a special interest in books for and about Sikh children) and acts as the Affirmative Action Officer on the Board of Directors for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California. Simran obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego and her Masters in Public Health and Masters in Medical Sciences degree from Boston University School of Public Health.

Gurjot Kaur, Staff Attorney (New York City)

Gurjot joined the Sikh Coalition as a Staff Attorney in February 2012. Gurjot provides legal services to victims of hate crimes, employment discrimination, public accommodations discrimination, profiling and other forms of discrimination.

Gurjot is licensed to practice law in Florida, New Jersey, and New York and before the U.S. District Court of New Jersey (a federal court).  Gurjot was invited to provide remarks on behalf of new attorneys at an induction ceremony, after she received the highest combined score on the Florida Bar examination in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which is comprised of Palm Beach, Broward, St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee counties as well as one of the highest scores overall in the State of Florida. The Honorable Peter Blanc, Chief Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, commented that it was the "best induction speech" he had heard in nearly 15 years.  Gurjot is an active member of the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association, where she is serving a three-year term as a committee member in the Young Lawyers Section. 

Gurjot earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from from the University at Buffalo Law School, where she was a three-year recipient of the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship.  Gurjot also received the Buffalo Public Interest Law Fellowship and worked with refugees and asylum seekers in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Gurjot actively competed and advanced in the Frederick Douglass National Moot Court Competition and was involved in several student-based organizations focusing on the rights of minorities in law school. Gurjot graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she received her undergraduate degree in History, Philosophy, Politics and Law.

Gurjot has previously been employed by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida and Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio.  Gurjot has practiced in the areas of family law, juvenile law, and civil rights, providing direct legal services to members of indigent and underprivileged communities in Florida and New York.  In her spare time, Gurjot enjoys traveling the world and has visited parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. 

Satjeet Kaur, Development & Communications Manager (New York City)

Satjeet Kaur joined the Sikh Coalition as an Education intern in October 2009, and took on the role of Operations Manager in September 2010 before moving to her current position as Development and Communications Manager in January 2011.  As Development and Communications Manager, Satjeet is responsible for the Coalition's national fundraising efforts and communications.

Prior to joining the Sikh Coalition, Satjeet was coordinator at SAMAR, a South Asian focused marrow donor recruitment group, where she organized donor recruitment events and managed its communications and marketing.  She also served on the Executive Board of the United Sikh Association at New York University as co-president for two years.

Satjeet graduated from New York University with a Bachelors of Arts in Religious Studies and Psychology.  In addition to her work at the Coalition, Satjeet is actively involved as a volunteer in community projects such as Lahir, Saanjh and the Bridgewater Khalsa School.

Balbir Singh, Operations Manager (New York City)

Balbir Singh joined the Sikh Coalition in May 2012.  As the Operations Manager, Balbir is responsible for all of the Sikh Coalition’s operations, national volunteer coordination and intern management, as well as ensuring the fiscal and technological management of the organization.

Balbir graduated from Oglethorpe University with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology as well as a Minor in Math. He graduated as a member of Phi Delta Epsilon, a medical fraternity, where he served as President, and Psi Chi, a psychological honor society. Balbir interned with the Office of Campus Life and was a Resident Assistant for two years.  In addition, he was captain of the Lacrosse team and helped guide the team through its first two seasons in NCAA Division 3 lacrosse.

Balbir is an active volunteer at numerous Gurmat camps in the Midwest and the South, where he teaches kirtan and Gurmat. He is classically trained to play the dilruba and the taus: two historical Sikh instruments.