David Sparks

David Sparks was raised in Illinois and Massachusetts. He graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University and received a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Sparks also was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School.

Sparks’s career included a variety of local, state and national political and public sector positions, including senior roles on three presidential campaigns.

He was also executive director of the Collins Center for Public Management at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at UMass Boston.

Sparks lives in Florida. He has a daughter, Grace, who lives in Washington, DC.

His books include Built to Fail, Burying Pinkie Pie, and What Carlos Knew. His newest book, Eulogy, was published in 2024.