Karla Sperling tutored and lectured at the University of Wollongong. She was for some time Deputy Chairperson of the Illawarra Catchment management Committee. Karla Sperling gained the world's first Ph.D. in Sustainable Futures when she graduated from the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney in May 2002, writing her thesis on "Overcoming legal impediments to urban planning for sustainability in the Sydney greater metropolitan region."

She was the convenor of the Friends of the Regent Theatre, Wollongong which campaigned to retain, protect and conserve the theatre and ensure its continuing public.

Sources used to compile this entry: Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2006, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/pssb/home.html; http://www.caths.org.au/unf44.htm (accessed 7 October 2005); http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/whoweare/karla.html (accessed 7 October 2005); http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/publications/KB_KS_1999pdf (accessed 7 October 2005).