Brigadier General (retired) Howard is the Founding Director of the Jebsen Center for Counter Terrorism studies at the Fletcher School. Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, General Howard was the Head of the Department of Social Sciences and the Founding Director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. His previous positions include Deputy Department Head of the Department of Social Sciences, Army Chief of Staff Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and Commander of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis, Washington. Other recent assignments include Assistant to the Special Representative to the Secretary General during UNOSOM II in Somalia, Deputy Chief of Staff for I Corps, and Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander for the Combined Joint Task Force,Haiti/Haitian Advisory Group. Previously, Colonel Howard was Commander of 3d Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He also served as the Administrative Assistant to Admiral Stansfield Turner and as a Special Assistant to the Commander of SOUTHCOM.
As a newly commissioned officer, General Howard served as an "A" Team Commander in the 7th Special Forces Group from 1970 to 1972. He left the active component and then served in the U. S. Army Reserve from 1972 to 1980. During this period he served as an Overseas Manager, American International Underwriters, Melbourne, Australia, and China Tour Manager and Canadian Pacific Airlines. He was recalled to active duty in 1980, and served initially in Korea as an Infantry Company Commander. Subsequent assignments included Classified Project Officer, U.S. Army 1st Special Operations Command, at Fort Bragg, and Operations Officer and Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group in Okinawa, Japan.
General Howard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from San Jose State University, a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, a Master of Arts degree in International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a Masters of Public Administration degree from Harvard University. General Howard was an Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, and a Senior Service College Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.