William "Ed" Howard holds a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Marquette University. He is an associate professor in the East Carolina University Department of Engineering, where he teaches solid modeling, engineering computations, solid mechanics, and composite materials.

Before beginning his academic career, Dr. Howard worked in industry for 14 years in design, analysis, and project engineering at Thiokol Corporation (Brigham City, UT), Spaulding Composites Company (Smyrna, TN), and Sta-Rite Industries (Delavan, WI). He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Wisconsin.