PG&E's Jeremy Howard Finds Joy in Volunteering, Dedicates Time to Search and Rescue

By Wendy Thies Sell

Jeremy Howard is proof that not all superheroes wear capes. He swoops in on two wheels, wearing bright orange, a flashlight on his helmet, and a backpack full of medical supplies.  

Howard leads the San Luis Obispo County Search and Rescue Unit’s Mountain Bike Team. The all-volunteer unit responds day or night when called out by the sheriff to locate and help a missing or injured person. 

He has worked for PG&E for over 23 years, currently he is the Regional Senior Manager for the Central Coast Region, made up of the Central Coast and Los Padres divisions.  

He embodies the volunteer spirit. It is second nature to him. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards over the years, such as Leadership San Luis Obispo and SLO Green Build. However, being an active outdoorsman, Search and Rescue is a perfect fit.

“I really wanted to do something physical,” Howard said. “I wanted to be out, doing things, helping people. Search and Rescue became a really great outlet.” 

Training is extensive — hundreds of hours each year. There are meetings, training sessions, and mock searches to stay sharp. The unit assists the sheriff in a variety of ways: helping with wildfire evacuations, setting up perimeters, and conducting criminal investigation evidence searches.  

In addition to leading the Mountain Bike Team, he is also the assistant team lead of the Ground Team. That’s the team that puts on hiking boots and carries all kinds of rescue gear to canvass areas, look for clues, and ideally find the missing person.

“It’s a life-changing experience to go on a search mission and be the one who finds a person, administers medical attention, summons Cal Fire and an ambulance to get them off to the hospital,” Howard said. “You always hope when you go out on a search mission that you find someone, and you can help them, and you can save them. Unfortunately, not all search missions end that way, as you might imagine. But we always aim to find people and save them. That’s our goal. But you have to be prepared for everything.” 

Howard recalled the time that he was called in to help find a person going through a life crisis who had left a suicide note at home and didn’t report to work. There was also evidence that the person had ingested too much medication, so time was of the essence.  

“I helped set up the search parameters and was hacking my way through some brush and found the person, still alive and clearly struggling medically. The good news is they survived!” he said.  

It could have been a much different story had they not been found in such a timely manner and without dedicated and highly trained volunteers like Howard. 

Mountainous searches are complicated because the terrain is difficult, and access is often challenging. But because people don’t always go missing in the wilderness, Howard has also participated in urban searches. 

“There could be an elderly person with dementia that wanders away from a care home and the sheriff calls in the Search and Rescue team,” he explained.  

Howard is proud to pitch in and help his community, whether he is wearing a Search and Rescue badge or his PG&E shirt. In addition to his Search and Rescue volunteering, he finds time to give back in other ways. Earlier this year, he helped organize and enlisted coworkers to volunteer at the Chumash Garden located at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, where together they cleared trails, added native plants and trimmed trees. 

“The way I look at it is what PG&E does is a public service, as well,” said Howard. “I get used to being in that role, always serving the public, whether it’s paid or unpaid. We are always in this service mode. The work we do at PG&E is just as much a public service as going and volunteering for Search and Rescue and some of these other organizations. To me, it’s one and the same.”