Dr. William Spriggs was hired as Director of Research and Public Policy of the National Urban League in September 1998. In that position, he directs the National Urban League's Washington Operations office and is responsible for the planning and administrative management of the League's research, legislative, public policy and advocacy efforts. He is a graduate of Williams College, and holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Spriggs joined the League following a career in government service and academia. Most recently, he served as Senior Advisor to the Associate Deputy Administrator for Government Contracting and 8(a) Business Development of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Before joining SBA, he was an Economist and Special Advisor in the office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Before his Commerce position, he was a Senior Economist for the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress. Kweisi Mfume brought him to the JEC in October 1994.

Before going to Capitol Hill, Dr. Spriggs joined the Clinton Administration in 1993 to lead the staff of the National Commission for Employment Policy. While at the Commission, he served on a task force for the National Economic Council that was aimed at anti-discrimination enforcement.

Dr. Spriggs went to Washington in the summer of 1990, working as an Economist at the Economic Policy Institute, where he did research on labor relations and labor market regulations. He did important work on the minimum wage and international labor standards.

Before coming to Washington, he taught six years in the School of Business at Norfolk State University in Virginia, where he also directed the University's Honors Program, and for two years in the School of Business at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. He has numerous publications, has presented at several international conferences, and has done consulting work for various state, local, and international agencies.