Dr Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknives Dene Territory in the Canadian subarctic and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Calgary.

The Vice-Chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Dr Howard 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, ecoanxiety, 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 Lancet Countdown policy brief author for Canada, she led the 2024 Roadmap for Planetary Health and Sustainable Health Systems for Canadian Medical Professionals, which is guiding the mainstreaming of planetary health within Canadian medical schools.

She is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Lancet Planetary Health and the Journal of Climate Change and Health.

She recently completed a Master of Public Policy Degree at Oxford University where she focused on using a planetary health lens to explore transitions to an economy centered around wellbeing, and her book on this topic will be published in 2026 by Bloomsbury Press, UK. 

She has two young daughters and loves to dance.