Daya Singh Sandhu

Background

Daya Sandhu was born on March 3, 1943, in Sarhali, India; the son of Surmej Singh Sandhu, a farmer, and Gurbachan Kaur Sandhu (Kahlon).

Education

Daya Singh Sandhu studied at Punjab University between 1963 and 1969 and received a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Technology and a Master of Arts. In 1970 he got a Master of Education from Delta State University. Daya also studied at the University of Mississippi and holds a Doctor of Education from Mississippi State University.

Career

Dr. Sandhu has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Counseling & Development, the Journal of Counseling and Values, Journal of Counselor Education and Supervision, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and others. He edited special issues of various national and international journals.

Sandhu has worked on ACA’s Ethics Committee, Human Rights Committee, Research and Knowledge Committee, and International Committee several times. He also chaired ACA’s Research and Knowledge Committee and International Committee twice. For five years Sandhu served on CACREP Executive Board of Directors.

Daya Singh Sandhu served as the national president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, a national division of ACA. Since May 4, 2010, Daya has been serving as Founding Executive Director of AMHC. As the Chair of the International Committee of ACA, he has started ACA International Counseling Interest Network.

In addition to his scholarly activities, he is the Founding President of the Sikh Society of Kentucky since 2011. With the help from the Sikh community, he established the Sikh Gurudwara in Louisville. It was the very first Gurdwara ever opened in the State of Kentucky.

Since 2014 Daya has worked as the Director of Research and Professor of Counselor Education and Supervision at Lindsey Wilson College. He was formerly a professor of research and chairman (1996-2004) of the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Louisville.

Achievements

• Throughout his career, Sandhu received several prestigious awards including Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Award, Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award, AMCD Research Awards (twice), Multicultural Teaching Award, Chi Sigma Iota Research Award, President’s Distinguished Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Mississippi State University Alumnus of the Year Award, and the Kentucky Counselor Educator of the Year Award (twice).
  
  On March 21, 2012, Sandhu was honored as a Fellow of the American Counseling Association at ACA Convention in San Francisco. He was also honored as the Diplomate. Daya also received one of the most coveted awards, the Arthur A. Hitchcock Distinguished Professional Service Award. He also received the Samuel H. Johnson Professional Service Award from the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. In 2013, Sandhu was honored with Kentucky Counseling Ambassador Award by the Kentucky Mental Health Counseling Association.
  
  The university-wide selection committee at the University of Louisville selected Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu to receive the 2013 President’s Distinguished Career Achievement Faculty Award in Service. Sandhu received this prestigious, Lifetime Career Achievement Award on September 9, 2013. On August 23, 2013, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars awarded Daya, Fulbright Senior Specialist Award. Most recently, Sandhu received Senior Fulbright-Nehru Research Award, the most prestigious award.
  
  Dr. Sandhu was honored as the Outstanding Counselor Educator from all the nationwide tenured counselor educators at the annual convention of the Association for Counselor Educators and Supervision. On October 25, 2013, Kentucky Counseling Association honored Dr. Sandhu with its most prestigious, Kearny Campbell Memorial Award.
  
  Daya Singh Sandhu received one of India’s highly prestigious Hind Rattan Award in New Delhi. American Counseling Association honored Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu with the most prestigious, 2014 ACA Presidential Award, at the Annual Convention of ACA. The Kentucky Counseling Association initiated a new, "Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu Research and Creative Innovations in Counseling Award" on June 22, 2015, in recognition of Dr. Sandhu’s national and international contributions to the profession of counseling.
  
  On May 13, 2015, Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu was honored with a medal and Pravasi Rattan Award by the NRI Welfare Society of India at the Global Achievers Conclave held at the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sandhu was one of the twenty global achievers honored from 23 million persons of Indian origin living abroad.
  
  Daya Singh received the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman (Non-Resident Honor) Award on October 25, 2018, at the annual conclave of Global Achievers held at the House of Commons, British Parliament, London, England.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Asian and Pacific Islander Americans

    (This book examines topics such as transracial adoption, w...)

    1999
  • Counseling for Prejudice Prevention and Reduction 1997
  • Faces of Violence 2001
  • Counseling Employees 2002
  • Elementary School Counseling in the New Millennium 2001

Membership

Daya Sandhu is a member of World Council for Curriculum Instruction, International Association of Addictions and Offender Counselors, American Counseling Association, American Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, American School Counselor Association, American Educational Research Association, American Association for Adult Development and Aging, American Association for Counseling and Development, American Association for Humanistic Education and Development, Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching, Kentucky Association for Counseling and Development, Kentucky Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, Louisiana Association for Counseling and Development, Louisiana Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, Louisiana Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, Phi Delta Kappa and Chi Sigma Iota.

Personality

Daya Singh Sandhu speaks Punjabi, Hindi, English, and some Sanskrit and Urdu languages.

Quotes from others about the person

• Dr. Joseph G. Ponterotto: "He appears to have found deep meaning in his life experiences that inform and guide his ground breaking professional work, which includes classic books and journal articles on fighting racial prejudice, gender inequity, and youth violence. He is clearly a renaissance person, a multicultural person."

Interests

• gardening, writing poetry, travel, playing tennis

Connections

Daya Sandhu married Kuldip Kaur Boparai on December 12, 1966. She died in 1973. In 1974 he married Usha Kiran, a registered nurse. Daya has four children - Jaswinder Sandhu Long, Sukhwinder, Varrinder and Ravinder.

Father:

Surmej Singh Sandhu

Mother:

Gurbachan Kaur Sandhu (Kahlon)

Spouse:

Usha Kiran

child:

Jaswinder Sandhu Long

child:

Sukhwinder Sandhu

child:

Varrinder Sandhu

child:

Ravinder Sandhu

late spouse:

Kuldip Kaur Boparai