Non-Resident Scholar
Angora Institute for Civic Virtue and the Common Good
Eastern University
email Lia Howard

Lia Howard is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Commons Institute and a Professor of Political Science and Liberal Studies in the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University. Prior to Agora she taught American Politics in the Political Science Department at Saint Joseph’s University. Dr. Howard was a Critical Writing Fellow and taught in the Political Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to teaching, she developed a program called Common Grounds, aimed at building social trust and connection across partisan divides. Dr. Howard oversaw the Global Smarts Internship program partnership between Saint Joseph’s University and the World Affairs Council. She is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRUCCS) and also a Senior Fellow at the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program both at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Howard studied English and French as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her MA and Ph.D. in Political Science also from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband, the Reverend Dr. Chaz Lattimore Howard and their three daughters.