Our policy experts
Arnold Howitt
Executive Director of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
Arnold M. Howitt is Executive Director of the Roy and Lila Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), with responsibility for its executive education and research programs. He also co-directs the Program on Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management, and Disaster Recovery at the HKS Taubman Center for State and Local Government. As a faculty member, he chairs and/or teaches in a number of executive education programs for senior officials from both the US and other countries, and he serves as an HKS ombudsperson.
Dr. Howitt’s research focuses on public management and intergovernmental policy implementation, including crisis management/emergency preparedness and transportation policy. He has conducted research or consulted for public agencies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as lecturing widely on these subjects. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Natural Disasters, he has served on a number of national and state advisory panels.
Dr. Howitt is the author of Managing Federalism: Studies in Intergovernmental Relations, and is co-author and co-editor of Managing Crises: Responses to Large-Scale Emergencies, Countering Terrorism: Dimensions of Preparedness and Perspectives on Management Capacity Building. He was Executive Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government prior to joining the Ash Institute. He received his BA from Columbia University and MA and PhD in Political Science from Harvard University.