About

About Aaron Sparks

Founder and Principal Consultant

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Aaron Sparks, PhD, is the founder of The Sparks Lab and a political scientist with over eight years of experience as a university professor. Before entering academia, he earned a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) and worked in state and local government, where he secured grants, conducted policy analysis, and led strategic communications initiatives.

Today, Aaron teaches courses in American politics, research methods, policy analysis, and environmental policy. His research focuses on how people think about the environment and how those beliefs influence their behavior. He designs comprehensive measurement tools and complex survey experiments to explore these questions. His work has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Sustainability, Environmental Psychology, and Environmental Politics. View his Google Scholar profile.

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Aaron founded The Sparks Lab to bring the rigor of academic social science to the challenges facing local governments and mission-driven organizations. He believes that even with limited resources, leaders can make better decisions through evidence-based insights and practical research applications.

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About the Sparks Lab LLC

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At The Sparks Lab, we apply cutting-edge social science methodologies to help local leaders and nonprofits make smarter, more strategic decisions. Our approach combines academic precision with a deep commitment to transparency, integrity, and impact.

We believe in human intelligence, not just artificial intelligence. While AI tools can support decision-making, your community has chosen you—not an algorithm—to lead. When you work with The Sparks Lab, you’re partnering with real people, grounded in real research, to navigate complex decisions and competing interests with clarity and confidence.

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