Dr. Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknives Dene Territory in the Canadian subarctic, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, and the founder of POWER—PlanetaryHealth Organizations for Wellbeing, Equity and Regeneration.
The President of the Northwest Territories Medical Association and the Chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Dr. Howard works from the bedside to global boardrooms to center the health of people and the planet in practice and policy.
She has researched menstrual cups and the health impacts of wildfires and was the first woman president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
She has led policy and advocacy work regarding adapting health systems to climate-amplified wildfires, social tipping points and the health sector, eco-anxiety, vaccine equity, active transport, plant-rich diets, fossil fuel divestment, carbon pricing, coal power phase-out, hydraulic fracturing, and with regards to Canada’s Oil Sands.
The 2018 International Policy Director for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and longtime policy brief author for Canada, she is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of The Lancet Planetary Health et le Journal of Climate Change and Health.
She recently completed a Master of Public Policy degree at the Blavatnik School at Oxford University, where she focused on using a planetary health lens to explore transitions to an economy centered around wellbeing, and is currently writing a book on that topic.
In 2024, she led the Roadmap for Planetary Health and Sustainable Healthcare that was passed unanimously by Canada’s medical school deans.
She has two young daughters and loves to dance.
TEDX: Healthy Planet, Healthy People
Drcourtneyhoward.ca