After 6 months of effort involving scientists from 19 countries the sterile neutrino white paper is now available in the preprint archive (arXiv:1204.5379 [hep-ph]). Building upon the recent Sterile Neutrinos at the Crossroad Workshop, held at Virginia Tech (September 26-28, 2011), the white paper presents the theoretical context, details the astrophysical and cosmological evidence, examines the experimental and evidence both for and against the sterile neutrino, and explores the different ideas and proposals for new experiments to test the hypothesis of a light sterile neutrino. As a white paper, its target audiance is policy makers, but the early reviews indicate that it will also be an excellent reference document for scientists working in the field.