Christopher D. Howard
Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy
College of William and Mary
Christopher (Chris) Howard, the Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy, has worked at the College of William & Mary for 16 years. During that time, he has held two other chaired professorships.
Professor Howard is a leading expert on U.S. social policy and tax policy. He is the author of two books – The Hidden Welfare State: Tax Expenditures and Social Policy in the United States and The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy – both published by Princeton University Press. The latter was recently named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine. He has also written over 20 book chapters and journal articles and won research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. Professor Howard has been invited to present his research at the best universities in the nation, including Cal-Berkeley, Georgetown, Harvard, UVa, and Yale, as well as at international conferences.
Dr. Howard loves to teach, and his sustained excellence in the classroom earned him the William & Mary Alumni Fellowship Teaching Award. He teaches courses in U.S. politics, public policy, and research methods. Students praise his clarity, organization, availability outside class, enthusiasm, and sense of humor. They marvel at his ability to make seemingly dry material come alive. (Admittedly, students are a little less enthused about his grading standards.)
Professor Howard has performed considerable service for his department, college, and profession. He has been unusually active in campus committees and academic advising. Dr. Howard is particularly proud of his work with the Sharpe Community Scholars Program at William & Mary. The Sharpe Program combines academic coursework with service projects in the community. For the last five years, Sharpe students have taken Professor Howard’s seminars about inequality and education while tutoring children from the local public schools. They learned about the causes of achievement gaps and tried to help close them. Dr. Howard has also served on review panels for the National Endowment for the Humanities and on prize committees and an advisory board for the American Political Science Association.
Professor Howard grew up on the mean streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in History from Duke University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in Political Science from one of the better trade schools in the country, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Howard and his wife, Dee Holmes, live in Williamsburg, Virginia with their two children.
