Steve Howard grew up in and around Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from the School of Foreign Service "during the Ford administration." The first time he left the US was moments after that graduation, to become a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad. After teaching in Chad he did his graduate work in sociology and African Studies at Michigan State University which included dissertation research in Sudan. He taught for 36 years at Ohio University, and was director of that university's NRC for African Studies for 24 years. Sudan has been his scholarly focus for more than 40 years and he has about 20 published articles about Sudan's Republican Brotherhood. His 2016 book, Modern Muslims, is in use around the country in undergraduate courses on Islam particularly.