Indian American Seema Singh Re-elected to Knoxville City Council Seat in Tennessee

Seema Singh has been re-elected to her City Council seat for the 3rd District in Knoxville, Tennessee, Nov. 2. Singh defeated her challengers Nicholas Ciparro with 56 percent of the vote, Hard Knox Wire reported. The 3rd District is home to the neighborhoods of Norwood and Cumberland Estates in northwest Knoxville.

The social worker and advocate was first the first Indian American elected to the Knoxville City Council in 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest left-wing organization in the country.

Singh has worked as a coordinator for the Batterers Intervention Program – Knoxville, for the past six years. It is a state-certified program to reduce intimate partner violence and rehabilitate domestic violence offenders

On the council, she has been a big proponent of community-based policing and grants targeted at low-income neighborhoods through affordable housing programs. One of her most immediate successes came in the form of a fee freeze from the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) as well as the creation of a community advisory board for KUB. Singh is running this campaign based on implementing the KUB broadband plan and targeting the roots of community violence through a mix of city programs.

Born in Varanasi, Singh moved with her family to Knoxville at the age 2, as her father, Ram Naresh Singh came on a Fulbright scholarship to New York’s Columbia University. He later settled in Knoxville to teach social work at the University of Tennessee. “I just followed in his footsteps when I took up social work,” she says. He passed away 15 years ago.

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After graduating from Bearden High School, she obtained a B.A. from UTK in Psychology and Religious studies.

She has served as a community advocate for more than two decades, dedicating many years to her work in the field of medical social services, where she assisted women in our community with access to healthcare. Additionally, she worked with the Knox County Health Department, focusing on access to medical care for Knoxville’s homeless population with HIV/AIDS.