Virginia Howell
Crisis chaplain · Field responder · Trainer
Virginia Howell spent years serving the Houston area as a crisis chaplain, program coordinator, and trainer—helping build the volunteer chaplaincy that stands beside Harris County deputies, grieving families, and disaster survivors in their most vulnerable moments.
As program coordinator and trainer for Crisis Chaplaincy of Harris County—a non-profit founded in April 2014 that grew out of her congregation at Highlands United Methodist Church—Howell helped design and teach the intensive 16-hour introductory curriculum. She trained volunteers to minister in hospitals, fire and EMS stations, jails, and alongside crime victims, grounding the work in a commitment to serve "not just by words but also by good deeds."
In the field, Howell worked closely with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, riding along with deputies during high-risk calls. Responding without department-issued body armor, she brought a cool head and steady judgment to volatile scenes—knowing when to stay back and when to step in. At home, her family shared in that dedication: she practiced on the shooting range with deputies, earning the quiet respect of her oldest son, while her daughter waited up to hear the stories at the end of each shift.
While her work encompassed operational training and emergency response, the heart of her service was human connection in the wake of trauma.
"I had no idea, really, what being a police chaplain was all about," Howell reflects. "When you’re exposed to people who are in traumatic situations for a long period of time and you see what they go through, it does start to change you. It starts to change your worldview, how you look at society... Watching people go through really traumatic things, especially children—I don’t usually get really affected by stuff at work, things that I see. However, when it becomes animal abuse or child abuse or something I see as being innocent, that’s when it really bothers me."
That quiet resolve was tested on a backup call for a severe child abuse case involving two young boys, ages eleven and five. Upon arrival, Howell saw the younger boy covered in blood from a brutal beating by his mother. As EMS worked to stabilize the boys and their mother sat handcuffed in a patrol car, Howell went into "mama mode," comforting the children and offering to ride beside them in the ambulance to Texas Children’s Hospital.
"It was at that point that I started tearing up," she recalls. "I just said, ‘Little guy, your mom’s got an illness. She’s got an illness up here and she needs help. It wasn’t anything that you did.’"
For Howell, that moment captures the essential, compassionate bridge chaplains provide alongside law enforcement. "Whether it be a sexual assault, a child abuse, a victim of crime, the officers and the deputies are there to control the scene," she says. "They’re there for the legal aspect of it. We’re the warm, fuzzy people. We’re the ones that are there for the victim—what they’re going through, what are their emotions, how do we calm them down."