AFS Executive Board Elects Kiran Singh Sirah as Newest Member

Kiran Singh Sirah (Independent) has been elected by the AFS Executive Board to serve as a member of the Board from 2024-2026. Sirah is an award-winning Storytelling Industry leader, Folklorist, Arts & Culture Strategist, Creative Thought Leader, and Past President of the International Storytelling Center. For more than two decades Kiran has established several award-winning arts, cultural and human rights initiatives in numerous countries. These programs have received recognition from UNESCO, The White House, The United Nations, and the European Commission. He has spoken at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The Pentagon, The US State Department and numerous world peace assemblies. 

In 2015, he was invited to the White House in support of storytelling efforts for national grassroots peacebuilding efforts. An advisory member to UNESCO Scotland, a Rotary Peace Fellow, and Senior Fellow for the Alliance for Peacebuilding, he develops articles, talks and advises on interdisciplinary creative approaches to relationship building in communities around the globe. Kiran has been a thought leader on projects with the Smithsonian, League of American Orchestras, Google Arts & Culture, Dollywood, Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, American Folklore Society, Library of Congress, and has collaborated on special arts & peacebuilding projects by invitation of Yo-Yo Ma and Dolly Parton.

Our world is made up of millions and millions of stories—heartbreaking, hilarious, poignant, complicated, infuriating, and fascinating narratives. Our stories aren’t static. They’re part of living moments, stories in progress that are still being cultivated as part of our collective history. Folklore can be harnessed to foster peace, cross-cultural understanding, and justice in a way that can elevate our field, our work with one another, and our broader experience as humans. As a peace and justice coalition builder, new American, and proud Appalachian, I’m honored to give back to my field.

Kiran Singh Sirah

Kiran passionately believes in the power of human creativity, and the notion of a truly global multicultural society. In 2017, he was one seven people worldwide selected to receive the “Champion of Peace” award at Rotary International Day at the United Nations in Geneva and was recently nominated to receive a National Education Association Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights and Social Justice award. In addition, his passion includes mentoring marginalized youth and partnering with peace activists, artists, and poets and other underserved folks and supporting them to become the story of change they wish to see in the world. Learn more about Kiran at www.kiransinghsirah.net.

AFS President, Amy Skillman, reflects on Kiran’s election to the Executive Board: “In the process of identifying and selecting a Board-elected Candidate, the AFS Executive Board does a scan of the needs in the field, as well as the context in which we are working, and then considers the skills and perspectives that are useful in addressing those needs.  We all agreed that peacebuilding and relationship-building will be essential in the coming years as we grapple with the world around us and find new points of entry for the field. 

Kiran fits the bill beautifully.  As a Rotary Peace Fellow with a degree in Folklore, Kiran is a visionary and creative leader who advocates for the advancement of storytelling as a tool for peacebuilding. He is excited to bring his skills to our work and especially to explore how we reframe the narratives of our discipline to better position the field in broader social and cultural conversations.  He will be an important asset to the Board as we work through difficult conversations to build empathy and cross-cultural understanding within the field and across sectors.”

Join us in welcoming Kiran Singh Sirah to the AFS Executive Board!