desire to serve others is a big part of their identity . You can see this reflected in their chosen careers of medicine , and for Brandy , education .
“ She ’ s currently the Chief Academic Officer for Bullitt County Schools and runs all the academics for their district . She ’ s a fantastic lady , and she ’ s well on her way to being a superintendent of a school district in the future . I ’ m really proud of her . She makes huge differences in the lives of kids every day .”
Two of the kids she ’ s most responsible for are their own , Jeffrey , 8 , and Kate , 6 . The kids enjoy golfing so Dr . Howard picked up the clubs recently , even though he said he ’ s “ terrible , could not be worse .” In between cases or while driving to work , he can be found with a book in his hand or an audiobook streaming through his AirPods . His favorites are factual history , but he ’ s also been known to read books from the Halo video game series . As a family , they love nothing more than embarking on a Disney cruise and are on track to set sail for the fifth time this winter .
As life has thrown curveballs at him for as long as he can remember , Dr . Howard has learned not to try to plan out the future , saying that often when you try to force a path in a certain way , it ends in disaster . All he knows for sure is that he wants to continue
serving people in meaningful ways and providing opportunities to those who might not otherwise have them . Dr . Howard is passionate about public health , especially Louisville residents who are the most vulnerable . He believes it is imperative to focus on the root causes of health , which will help people rise out of the perpetual and vicious cycles of poverty and poor health .
“ I know there ’ s people like me who grew up poor , who grew up with family members who have chronic and preventable illnesses who are going to get the opportunity to do some of the things that I do . I think about how I grew up in Eastern Kentucky and how I was in five different elementary schools by the time I was in first grade , after being evicted from trailer parks . I remember being 7 or 8 years old and wondering if our car was going to be towed again or if the lights were going to be turned off ,” he said . “ I get to come home , knowing that my children have a different life than I did growing up . I know that working at the health department is leading to those same changes to give other people the opportunity to do the same things for their families in the future . And serving people in that way is what makes me excited to do the work I ’ m doing .”
Kathryn Vance is the Communication Specialist at the Greater Louisville Medical Society .
November 2022 37