Meet B. Phil

Born & Raised

I was raised in Laurel Springs by my parents, Phil and Evelyn Howell, who instilled in our family a strong work ethic, faith, and a deep love for Ashe County.

My mother, Evelyn, was raised in Creston on Brushy Fork, with family roots spread throughout the county. She dedicated her career to the Ashe County School System, beginning at Northwest High School and retiring in the early 2000s after years of service to our students.

My father, Phil, began his career as a radio personality before transitioning into education in the early 1980s. As both an elementary and high school teacher, he quickly moved into leadership roles, serving as Assistant Principal at Northwest High School and Mountain View Elementary, later becoming Principal of Piney Creek Elementary and Ashe County High School. He recently retired after serving as Assistant Superintendent of Ashe County Schools, completing a lifetime of service to our community’s children.

My sister, Angie, attended Beaver Creek and Appalachian State University and has devoted 30 years to teaching. Angie currently resides in Millers Creek with her husband Rex and her son Dylan.

Public service, education, and giving back have always been at the heart of our family. We are proud to call Ashe County home, and that pride continues to guide my commitment to serving this community.

Growing Up

Growing up in Ashe County, I attended West Jefferson Elementary, Beaver Creek High School and finished at Ashe County High School when the schools were consolidated. During this time, I spent most of my high school years playing sports and participating in J.R.O.T.C. Learning community leadership through J.R.O.T.C., I assisted in over 70 community events. Most events were with the firing squad for military funerals and assisting in communities all across Ashe County. It is with great pride that I was able to help Ashe County in many ways during my youth.

NC State University

In 2001 I was accepted to NC State University where I joined the NC State University Leopold Wildlife Club. This club provided me with many opportunities to assist communities with wildlife issues. We became a member of the Raleigh Community Program where we assisted communities with cleaning, restoring, and rehabilitation of neighborhoods. It is something that we hardly recognize, but our cities need our plants and resources just as much as our local communities. During my first 2 years at NC State University, I received the opportunity to begin teaching Computer Science lab classes. I soon entered the position of Computer Science Lab Administrator that allowed me to create & administer over 20 employees and 700 students. I left both positions in 2006 for a position with NC State Parks.

NC State Parks

Following graduation from NC State University, I began my law enforcement career as an NC State Ranger with the North Carolina State Parks System in the Raleigh area. I attended B.L.E.T. (Basic Law Enforcement Training) at Wake Tech. Community College where I was elected class President.

The experience that NC State Parks afforded me was the opportunity to perform general law enforcement, as well as public educational programming and community presentations. After working a few years at Raven Rock State Park, I moved to Jordan Lake State Park where the position was primarily Law Enforcement. It was here that I was awarded the North Carolina Heroism Award for my assistance in reviving a drowning 2-year-old child in 2008. During this time, I also received the NC Parks Commendation award for serving with a team that saved the life of a suicidal person who jumped from a bridge in 2009.

Amanda, Emma, Norah & Adaline

While in B.L.E.T. I met my wife, Amanda Howell. Amanda was an Agent for the State Bureau of Investigation. Amanda attended UNC-G for her undergraduate studies and received her Doctorate from Wake Forest University in Winston Salem. She worked for the SBI for 5 years before becoming a Professor at Appalachian State University.

It was my love of family that brought me back to Ashe County. I married Amanda in 2008 and now have three beautiful daughters, Emma, Norah, and Adaline. We couldn’t imagine a better community to raise our children.

Ashe County Sheriff's Office 2010-2018

I began working with the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office in 2010 as a Narcotics Detective. Being a narcotics investigator gave hope to helping the community by removing drugs and traffickers from the streets of Ashe County. It was work that gave meaning to helping youth not see the drugs that surround our communities. During this time I started 2 programs. The first being Operation Medicine Drop, bringing unused narcotics and pills off the streets to be safely destroyed. Over 100,000 dosage units were destroyed each year. I also started our Certified Appalachian State University Internship Program. In conjunction with Appalachian State, we changed the way we handled interns. Students spent a week with every branch of the Sheriff’s Office. Gaining invaluable experience and time with every position from the ground floor to the 3^rd. This also was a great training ground for gathering new hires who molded well with the employees of the Sheriff’s Office.

In 2015 I was promoted to Director of Dispatch and in charge of bringing the 911 Communications Division up-to-date, while meeting with various Emergency Management groups to gather feedback on their needs and how the county can better assist them when rendering aid to the citizens of Ashe County. I attended every Fire Association meeting to ensure that our relations with all Fire Departments were the best they could be. During this time, a large project with the state 911 Board was mandated, requiring a backup center that we could maintain in the event of a failure. After many grueling days and hours, we produced a $400,000 project that provided Ashe County with a full backup of our 911 Dispatch Center.

Ashe County Sheriff 2018-2022

When I was elected to be your Sheriff, I entered this office with the intention of being the Sheriff I had promised during the election. I wanted to create a community-centered atmosphere where our citizens could feel like their Sheriff’s Office is an active participant in the community, not just the faces you see in the worst moments of your life. We began with transparency, our website for the Sheriff’s Office was created for the express purpose of clarity. The press releases that followed and continue to this day are to keep our community informed of major incidents, as well as positive happenings within our community. We continued into community events, and these events are geared toward our children. The most essential outreach is the kind that allows our children to establish a relationship with our office. Too often, our children have been exposed to negative connotations about law enforcement. We hoped to show them that we care and are here for them when they need us. We did this by establishing community events such as Deputy 4 a Day, a continuation of the Shop with a Cop program, and Rooftop Cops, to name a few. We have also partnered with Ashe County Schools to grow the Deputy 4 a Day program into today’s Ashe Back to School Blast, reaching thousands of our community just this past summer. I intend to continue and build on these programs as they have proved to be necessary to everyone involved.

My approach to the law enforcement aspect of the Sheriff’s Office has been no different. I came in with the intent to accomplish the goals promised during the election. We have made great strides regarding those goals beginning with the addition of 4 deputies to establish a more significant presence in the community through the patrol. This added an additional deputy to each patrol shift and widened the coverage area on an average shift. More manpower also significantly reduced response times for our citizens. These four deputies came at a reduced cost to the taxpayer by partially funding the positions with a grant. We have established a SWAT team to resolve dangerous and tense situations peacefully. I have encouraged my staff to take every specialized training to strive for excellence in our law enforcement duties. These occupational education opportunities led to several of our law enforcement, detention, and staff members becoming instructors themselves to better equip our professionals, in-house, with the tools they need to excel in service. Officer safety has been a large focus in our growth, working with families of our deputies to attain items such as ballistic shields and helmets to ensure the tools are readily available for each deputy to protect themselves and come home to our loved ones. I believe the drive for excellence in law enforcement is ongoing; serving our community and exceeding what is expected of our office is a work that can never be passive; this is why the establishment of community programs and equipping our staff with the tools they need to succeed will be a never-ending push.

Ashe County Sheriff 2022-2026

At the beginning of my second term as Sheriff, our community found itself during the unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic. These were uncertain and difficult times for Ashe County, and our Sheriff’s Office was called upon to adapt quickly while continuing to serve and protect our citizens. We remained focused on maintaining strong, professional law enforcement operations, ensuring public safety, and supporting our deputies and staff as they worked under extraordinary conditions. At the same time, we stepped up to assist with calls for help across the county, working alongside our community partners to meet needs wherever they arose. Through teamwork, commitment, and resilience, we faced those challenges head-on and continued to put the safety and well-being of Ashe County first.

During this term, we strengthened partnerships with local and regional organizations to secure critical opioid grant funding, allowing us to take meaningful action in addressing addiction within our community. Through this funding, we began the groundwork for our Inmate Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program, a process that required careful planning, collaboration, and dedication. That work came full circle in November of 2025, when the program officially became operational. Today, we have a structured medical process in place to help inmates confront addiction and begin a path toward recovery, and I am incredibly proud of the many staff members and partners who worked tirelessly to make this program a reality.

In addition, we invested in a state-of-the-art full-body scanner for our detention center. This technology significantly enhances safety for both staff and inmates by detecting drugs, weapons, and other contraband before they enter the jail, all without the need for invasive searches. These improvements reflect our commitment to modern, responsible leadership that prioritizes safety, dignity, and long-term solutions for Ashe County.

In 2024, Ashe County faced a challenge unlike anything we had ever experienced with Hurricane Helene. The storm devastated our communities, triggering massive and immovable mudslides, destroying homes, cutting off access to entire areas, and tragically claiming lives. In those critical moments, our focus shifted from traditional law enforcement duties to doing whatever was necessary to help our neighbors survive and recover. Members of the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office volunteered in uniform, stepping directly into relief efforts alongside other first responders and community partners. We delivered lifesaving medicine and oxygen to those who were isolated, checked on vulnerable residents, and worked tirelessly to reach people in need. Our Sheriff’s Office became a central community supply station, helping distribute food, water, and essential resources. This response reflected who we are as a Sheriff’s Office, servants first, committed to standing with our community during its darkest hours and helping Ashe County begin the road to recovery.

Our first four years were built on a strong foundation of community engagement and the creation of meaningful programs designed to better connect law enforcement with the citizens we serve. We worked intentionally to build trust, open lines of communication, and ensure that our Sheriff’s Office was visible, approachable, and responsive to the needs of Ashe County.

During this term, our focus expanded to strengthening core law enforcement operations while simultaneously responding to extraordinary challenges such as COVID-19 and Hurricane Helene. Even in the face of these crises, we continued to move Ashe County forward. Among these accomplishments was the establishment of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, providing a higher level of preparedness for critical incidents. We implemented the Internet Crimes Against Children program to better protect our most vulnerable citizens, launched the Rapid Deployment Program in our schools to enhance emergency response and lifesaving capabilities, and placed North Carolina’s first Safe Haven Baby Box to offer a secure and compassionate option for infants in crisis situations. Alongside these efforts, we remained steadfast in our commitment to removing narcotics from our communities and addressing substance abuse within our detention center. Together, these initiatives reflect balanced leadership, focused on safety, preparedness, compassion, and accountability for Ashe County.

Over the last several months, we have launched a new phase of our law enforcement community enrichment efforts, focused on transparency, prevention, and citizen involvement. One of the most significant milestones has been the rollout of the Community Crime Map, a project that has been more than four years in the making. This tool now allows every citizen of Ashe County to view reported crimes on an interactive map, empowering our community with information and strengthening trust through openness and accountability. We have also introduced our new Traffic Safety Program, designed to address concerns raised directly by our residents. Through this program, citizens can request the Sheriff’s Office traffic trailer to collect real-time speed and traffic data in their neighborhoods. This data-driven approach helps us better understand problem areas, respond appropriately, and work with the community to improve roadway safety.

Together, these programs reflect our continued commitment to modern policing that is proactive, transparent, and rooted in community partnership.

Coming Together to make Ashe a Better County for our Citizens and Future Generations to Come!

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