LeAnne Howard

LeAnne Noelani Howard is the strategic advisor and Washington, D.C. commander’s representative for NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ). She serves as the Command’s senior advisor on U.S. policy and strategy—responsible for integration of U.S. and NATO Special Operations Forces (SOF) policy, NSHQ legislative coordination and U.S. framework reporting in line with OSD oversight. She is co-located with OSD IWCT. 

Prior to this assignment, Howard served as director of NATO Special Operations Strategy, Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate, leading efforts spanning the development of Allied SOF capabilities to the evolution of NATO SOF operational design and planning in support of NATO’s adaptation and new Strategic Concept. She also led development of NSHQ’s institutional strategy and management processes. 

Howard served as deputy director of strategy, plans and policy, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) where she led integration of special operations objectives into Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and interagency plans and policies. She also ran SOCOM strategic engagements and red-teaming programs from 2012-2017 and authored several conceptual papers on the changes in the geostrategic environment and implications for irregular forces.

Howard has worked on Capitol Hill on legislative policy, has over a decade of experience working in Europe at strategic and operational headquarters, and has deployed to various locations in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Prior to joining government, she worked in the private sector and academia.

Howard has master's degrees from Fairfield University (MBA), George Washington University (M.P.S., legislative affairs), and the U.S. Naval War College (M.A., distinction), and is completing a NATO-sponsored doctorate of management from Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales, U.K. 

Howard is a part-time professor with Syracuse University’s Maxwell School D.C. campus at CSIS and lectures at the Army War College and various NATO academic institutions. She served as a non-resident fellow with Columbia University and Council on Foreign Relations term member, and completed Harvard University’s Senior Executive Fellows Program, publishing research on resilience, irregular warfare and trans-Atlantic security.