Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass) was born in 1931. Ram Dass studied psychology, specializing in human motivation and personality development. He received an M.A. from Wesleyan and a Ph.D. from Stanford. He then served on the psychology faculties at Stanford and the University of California, and from 1958 to 1963 taught and researched in the Department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. During this period he co-authored (with Sears and Rau) the book Identification and Child Rearing, published by Stanford University Press. 

In 1961, while at Harvard, Ram Dass' explorations of human consciousness led him, in collaboration with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and others, to pursue intensive research with psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. Out of this research came two books: The Psychedelic Experience (co-authored by Leary and Metzner, and based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, published by University Books); and LSD (with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller, published by New American Library). Because of the controversial nature of this research, Ram Dass was dismissed from Harvard in 1963. Ram Dass continued his research under the auspices of a private foundation until 1967.

Ram Dass created the Hanuman Foundation in 1974. Projects developed under its aegis included the Prison Ashram Project, designed to help prison inmates grow spiritually during their incarceration, and the Dying Project, conceived as a spiritual support structure for conscious dying. The Foundation and both of these projects now pursue their work under independent auspices. Ram Dass is a co-founder and advisory board member of the Seva Foundation, an international service organization. He works with the Social Venture Network, an organization of businesses seeking to bring social consciousness to business practices, and the Institute for Dying, a project of the Zen Hospice Center.

Ram Dass' interests include the support of psychedelic research, international development, environmental awareness, and political action. He has written a number of spiritual books including Be Here Now, published in 1971 (over one million copies sold, 37th printing, Crown Publishers); The Only Dance There Is (Anchor/Doubleday); Grist for the Mill (with Stephen Levine, Celestial Arts); Journey of Awakening (Bantam Books); Miracle of Love: Stories of Neem Karoli Baba (Hanuman Foundation); How Can I Help? (with Paul Gorman, Knopf); and Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush, Bell Tower Press). Ram Dass' most recent book, entitled Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying, was published by Riverhead Books in 2000.

He continues to teach about the nature of consciousness, and about service as a spiritual path.

Ram joined the CCLE's Board of Advisors in 2001.

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