R. Rodney Howell

R. Rodney Howell, M.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Chairman Emeritus, at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in Florida.  He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, as well as the American Board of Medical Genetics in the area of Clinical Biochemical Genetics. Prior to being named Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in 1989, Dr. Howell was David R. Park Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical School at Houston.   He is the author of numerous original articles, abstracts and other material dealing with serious genetic diseases in childhood.  In the fall of 2007, he was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Duke Medical Alumni Association.  He was honored as the 2009 Butterfield Lecturer at the NICHD/University of Colorado Annual Conference on Maternal-Fetal-Neonatal-Reproductive Medicine in Aspen, Colorado.  Dr. Howell chairs the Board of Directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Tucson, AZ., the largest private funding agency for neuromuscular research and services in the United States.  He serves as the Special Assistant to the Director of Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development of the NIH, focusing on the Institute’s research efforts in newborn screening.  Dr. Howell also heads the Secretary’s Advisory Committee of Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, the congressionally-mandated group that advises the Secretary of HHS on newborn genetic screening and other issues concerning genetics in children. Currently over 95% of the 4.1 million children born yearly in the United States receive the expanded newborn screening panel formulated by the American College of Medical Genetics and recommended by this Committee.