Michelle Howard , in full Michelle Janine Howard, also called Michelle J. Howard (born April 30, 1960, Riverside, California, U.S.), U.S. military officer who was the first woman to become a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. She also made history as the first African American woman to captain a U.S. naval ship (1999).

Howard was born into a military family—her father served as a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force—and by the time she was 12 years old, she had started thinking about embarking on a career in the military. Howard discovered, however, that opportunities for women in U.S. military academies during the early 1970s were nonexistent. That circumstance changed when U.S. Pres. Gerald Ford signed (1975) the Military Procurement Bill, which provided for the admission (starting in 1976) of women into the military academies. During high school Howard applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and upon entering the academy in 1978, she became one of only seven black women in the school’s class of 1,363 students. She graduated (1982) from the Naval Academy and earned (1998) a master’s degree in military arts and sciences from the U.S. Army’s Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

During Howard’s sophomore year at the academy, she piloted her first ship, the destroyer USS Spruance, during a summer training cruise. She served aboard the submarine tender USS Hunley (1982–85) and the training aircraft carrier USS Lexington (1985–87) before being named (1990) the chief engineer aboard the USS Mount Hood. She assumed the duties of first lieutenant (1992) aboard the USS Flint and was the executive officer (1996) on the USS Tortuga. By taking command of the USS Rushmore, Howard became the first African American woman to captain a U.S. naval ship.

She served (May 2004–September 2005) as the commander of Amphibious Squadron 7, which aided in relief in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. She became the first African American woman to lead a U.S. Navy battle group