Howard N. Apsan, Ph.D.
Senior Executive Director of Environmental , Health, Safety and Risk Management, The City University of New York (CUNY)
Howard Apsan serves as the Senior Executive Director of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Risk Management for The City University of New York, the largest urban university system in the United States, with 25 campuses, approximately 250,000 degree-seeking students, 45,000 full- and part-time faculty and staff, and 28 million square feet of space in almost 300 buildings. He is responsible for environmental health and safety management and compliance for students, faculty, staff, and visitors throughout the University. He also serves as the University’s risk manager, tasked with assessing liabilities, promoting resiliency and continuity, and minimizing CUNY’s operational and reputational risks—on campus, at off-campus educational, residential, and recreational settings, for CUNY-related domestic and international travel, and for the University’s 500-vehicle fleet—through CUNY-wide protocols, training, and insurance.
He is a member of the CUNY Chief Operating Officer’s senior staff and chairs the University’s Environmental Health and Safety Council, its Risk Management and Business Continuity Council, and the New York Campus Environmental Resource, an inter-university consortium. He responds to emergencies throughout the University, develops and implements mitigation plans, serves as a liaison between CUNY and government agencies, other universities, and private and not-for-profit entities, and was a member of the Chancellor’s COVID-19 Task Force, co-chair of its environment and facilities committee, leader of the CUNY COVID-19 testing program (administering 600,000 tests at 19 testing sites over two years and tracking 350,000 people through a contracted IT platform), and coordinator of CUNY’s Emergency Operations Plans.
Throughout his career, he has always made time to teach, consult, write, lecture, and engage in public service. He began teaching at Columbia University as a Ph.D. student and has taught continuously since then. He teaches. He teaches the core sustainability management course at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and in Columbia’s Sustainability Management program, and also teaches an annual graduate workshop at SIPA. He has taught at Barnard College and New York University, and has lectured at universities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
After serving for several years in the New York City Mayor’s Office, Board of Education, and Sanitation Department, he left municipal government to pursue a career in environmental and risk management consulting at ICF, McLaren/Hart, Clayton, and Marshall & Stevens, progressively increasing his leadership and P&L responsibility, and ultimately founded Apsan Consulting, which he still owns. He has served industrial, commercial, real estate, government and not-for-profit clients throughout the United States and has considerable international experience. He lives in Springfield, New Jersey, where he is on the Environmental Commission, was the president of a community-based non-profit corporation, and serves as a lieutenant in the police reserve.
He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Brooklyn College, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
