Crisis Management and Emergency Preparedness

Dr. Arnold M. Howitt is faculty co-director of the Program on Crisis Leadership and senior advisor of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS). Howitt has worked extensively on emergency preparedness and crisis management issues in the US and other countries. He has recently been researching and writing about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, Nepal's emergency response to the 2015 earthquakes, lessons from the emergency response to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Japan's response to and recovery from the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident, and cross-agency and inter-jurisdictional coordination in China's emergency management system. Howitt directed the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness (1999-2003) sponsored by the US Department of Justice, to conduct research on US preparedness for terrorism and organize and manage a standing task force of Harvard faculty and local, state, and federal officials in emergency management, public safety, law enforcement, and public health. Following the anthrax attacks in the US, he served on the governor's bioterrorism coordinating council in Massachusetts (2002) and was a member of an Institute of Medicine/National Academies panel assessing the federal Metropolitan Medical Response System program (2000-2002). At HKS, Howitt works extensively in executive education for senior officials. During the fall terms of 2018 and 2019, Howitt taught at Tsinghua University's Schwarzman College in Beijing, China. Previously, he held visiting faculty/scholar positions at Kyoto, Keio, Iwate, Kansai, and Tokyo Universities in Japan. Howitt is co-author/editor and author of many books and articles. He earned his BA degree from Columbia University and MA and PhD degrees in political science from Harvard University.