Singer studied anthropology at California State University, Northridge (Master of Arts, Anthropology, 1975) and completed a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Utah in 1979. He held a National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University (1979–80) and another at the University of Connecticut Medical School from 1982 to 1983.
