William J. Sparling, currently conducts independent research on a variety of public policy issues. From 2008-2014 he served as a member of the AARP National Policy Council (NPC), a 25-member all volunteer policy analysis and advisory body to AARP’s Board of Directors. Mr. Sparling’s responsibilities included participating in national issue forums, reviewing polling research, and examining policy trends and analyses. During this period Mr. Sparling also served on AARP Virginia’s Executive Council and was the NPC’s Regional Southeast representative. In his twenty-two year career at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Mr. Sparling researched and developed Congressional and agency recommendations to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs in housing and community development, energy and natural resources, transportation, consumer protection, natural disaster mitigation as well as budgetary issues. He served on GAO's federal budgetary savings task force and his budgetary reviews contributed significantly to identification of several billion dollars of budgetary savings.As governmental relations liaison for the University of Delaware’s Institute for Energy Conversion, Mr. Sparling’s work helped secure annual federal funding for the Institute’s photovoltaic research. As a member of the city of Portland (Oregon) Community Development Block Grant Task Force, Mr. Sparling helped make recommendations on the use of block grant funding which influenced the city’s community development policy. As a policy planner for the Native American Rehabilitation Association, he developed their first comprehensive and culturally-specific policy manual.