Dr. Diane Howard

Director, Commercial Space Policy, National Space Council 

Dr. Diane Howard currently serves as Director of Commercial Space Policy at the National Space Council (NSpC) in the Executive Office of the President. The NSpC is the White House policy council chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris that advises and assists the President on the development and implementation of space policy and strategy. The NSpC is comprised of Cabinet-level Secretaries and senior executive branch officials. The council is supported by the Users Advisory Group, a Federal Advisory Committee of experts from industry, academia, and non-government organizations. Dr. Howard previously served as Chief Counsel for Space Commerce in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the General Counsel.  

Diane is an experienced attorney in the space sector skilled in space law, legal writing, international relations, and corporate law. Currently a Visiting Professor and non-resident scholar with UT Austin’s Strauss Center for International and Security Studies. Dr. Howard was an original architect of the Commercial Space Operations Program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida where she taught for six years.  

Dr. Howard was an Arsenault Doctoral Fellow in Space Governance and received a Doctor of Civil Law (PhD) as well as a Master of Law (LLM) from McGill University’s, Institute of Air and Space Law in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and her Juris Doctor (JD) from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  

In addition to her work at the National Space Council, Dr. Howard served as Executive Secretary and Vice President of the International Institute of Space Law, is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, is a member of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and as an expert member in the Working Group for the Long-Term Sustainability of Space Activities with the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space based in Vienna, Austria.