Arnold M. Howitt is the founding faculty co-director (retired) of the Program on Crisis Leadership.
As a faculty member, Dr. Howitt worked extensively in executive education for senior officials. He chaired or co-chaired Leadership in Crises, Leadership for New State Health Directors, and co-founded and has taught in Crisis Leadership for Higher Education and the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. He has also been deeply involved in executive education programs for China, serving as faculty chair of China Crisis Management and co-chair of the Shanghai Executive Public Management and China's Leaders in Development programs.
Dr. Howitt's research focuses on public management and intergovernmental policy implementation, particularly emergency preparedness and disaster management. He has conducted research or consulted for public agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as lecturing widely on these subjects. He has served on a number of national and state advisory panels.
Among other writing, Dr. Howitt is co-author/editor of Public Health Preparedness (forthcoming), Managing Crises: Responding to Large-Scale Emergencies (2009), Countering Terrorism: Dimensions of Preparedness (2003), and Perspectives on Management Capacity Building (1986), and author of Managing Federalism: Studies in Intergovernmental Relations (1984).
At HKS, he was most recently Senior Adviser and Executive Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Innovation and Government, and prior to that Executive Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government. He received his BA from Columbia University and MA and PhD in political science from Harvard University.