Heather Howard is a Professor of the Practice at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she co-directs the Global Health Program and is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Health & Wellbeing. She teaches courses in implementation of the Affordable Care Act, state and local health policy, public health and politics, the social determinants of health, and global health policy. She is also director of the State Health and Value Strategies program, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program focused on assisting states with transforming their health care systems to be affordable, equitable and innovative.

Howard researches and writes on a variety of health policy topics. She is co-editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (JHPPL) Special Section on Tracking Health Reform and hosts the Princeton Pulse Podcast, which highlights the vital connections between health research and policy.

Howard served as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health and Senior Services from 2008-2010, overseeing a cabinet-level agency with a budget of $3.5 billion and staff of 1,700, responsible for public health services, regulation of health care institutions, senior services, and health care policy and research. In 2017 and 2018, she co-chaired New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s health care transition committee and was later appointed by Governor Murphy to the Multistate Gun Violence Research Consortium, the NJ State Health Benefits Value and Quality Task Force, and the Board of Directors for University Hospital in Newark.

Howard also has significant federal experience, having worked as Senator Jon Corzine's Chief of Staff, as Associate Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Senior Policy Advisor for First Lady Hillary Clinton, as an Honors Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division Health Care Task Force, and for the U.S. Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY). She received her B.A. from Duke University and her J.D. from NYU School of Law.

She resides in Princeton, NJ with her husband and they have a son who is in college.