Howlett Brings Passion to AARP Volunteer Role

Elizabeth Howlett, 67, spent her career immersed in the nitty-gritty details of health care policy—from her stint as a state senator to her eight years as Rhode Island’s lieutenant governor.

Howlett retired in April, but she’s still putting her health care heft to use. Earlier this year, she became AARP Rhode Island’s volunteer state president.

“I still wanted to be engaged in the community and making a difference,” says Howlett, who lives in Providence and was most recently director of special projects in the provost’s office at the University of Rhode Island.

Catherine Taylor, AARP Rhode Island’s state director, says she was “overjoyed” when Howlett applied. The two had worked together to write the first state plan for Alzheimer’s disease in 2012, when Howlett was lieutenant governor and Taylor was director of the state Division of Elderly Affairs.

“She doesn’t care about getting credit or her own advancement,” Taylor says. “She just really wants to do good things in the world.”

In addition to her 10 years in elected office—during which she chaired Rhode Island’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council and helped implement the federal Affordable Care Act in the state—Howlett served for two years as Rhode Island’s Health and Human Services secretary.

“Health care has been my passion ... even as a teenager,” says Howlett, who also loves the outdoors and spends her free time hiking, among other activities.

In her volunteer role at AARP, she has been penning op-eds on accessory dwelling units and retirement savings legislation, meeting with Rhode Island’s congressional delegation in Washington and even pitching in at shredding events. “She just likes to roll up her sleeves and get to work,” says Taylor.

—Michelle Cerulli McAdams