Description In this episode of Measure What Matters, host Melissa Chapman Haynes sits down with Angela Fields — community health worker, certified doula, founder of CHW Concepts, and creative director of Pathways to Wellness Community Health Initiatives — to explore what happens when we measure impact from the community's perspective instead of from the top down. The conversation opens with a deceptively simple question: Who gets to decide what "working" actually means? From there, Angela traces her 35-plus-year journey in community health — from growing up as the apprentice of her mother, a community navigator in Chicago, to helping build the community health worker profession in Minnesota, to launching a statewide CHW Awareness Week recognized by Governor Tim Walz. Angela shares what impact looks like when you're boots on the ground: it's the patient who finds you in the grocery store to say their life changed. It's a community that's thriving, not just surviving. It's the moment when 45 organizations and multiple elected officials show up on a Saturday because of the trust you've built over decades. The episode is a powerful reminder that communities often know what's working — and what isn't — long before the data catches up, and that the most meaningful evaluation starts with simply asking the people whose lives are affected: Did this help? What changed for you? Episode Summary The Core Question: Funders, health systems, and evaluators each define success differently — but too often, the people most affected by a program or policy are left out of that conversation entirely. Melissa and Angela explore what changes when community voices are centered from the very beginning. Angela's Story: Angela credits her late mother, Barbara Fields, a community navigator and community engager in Chicago, for introducing her to systems-level thinking at a young age. After briefly pursuing teaching and then nursing, Angela found her true calling in human services and became one of the first community health workers certified under Minnesota's 2007 reimbursable legislation. Building a Profession: When the 2008 economic rollback eliminated CHW positions funded by federal grants, Angela and her peers — armed with nothing but their voices — stumbled into advocacy and policy work. They learned to write letters, meet elected officials, and organize at the Capitol. Out of that movement grew a peer circle, a newsletter, a registry, and conferences that helped define the CHW profession in Minnesota. In 2025, Governor Tim Walz proclaimed August 25–31 as CHW Awareness Week in the state. What Impact Means: For Angela, impact goes far beyond spreadsheets. It's seeing someone gain knowledge, build confidence, and access resources they didn't have before. It's the follow-up in the grocery store where a former client says, "Thank you — because of you, I'm here now." It's watching a struggling community not just survive, but thrive. Meaningful Community Engagement: True engagement means being present beyond the clinical walls — listening, valuing lived experience as expertise, compensating people fairly for their time, and giving the community real power in decisions that affect them. Melissa shares a story from her time at the University of Minnesota, where a nonprofit leader's frustration revealed the gap between institutional intentions and community reality. What Communities Know Before the Data: Communities know when families are struggling with housing, food insecurity, or broken trust in the system — long before reports validate it. The data can confirm what's happening, but it shouldn't take a dashboard to listen to what the community is already saying. Qualities for the Work: Angela names the personal qualities that matter most: curiosity, open-mindedness, optimism, empathy (not sympathy), and letting your values guide you. She shares her own health journey — a pre-diabetic diagnosis that realigned her as a role model, and a spinal injury that redirected her career — as proof that lived experience deepens empathy and authenticity. Pathways to Wellness: Angela recently launched Pathways to Wellness Community Health Initiatives, drawing on decades of professional relationships. At the August launch event, over 45 organizations, 10 businesses, 6 physicians, and visits from the offices of Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Liz Lee, and Senator Fong came together — serving more than 250 community members and families. Angela describes the moment she started crying, overwhelmed not by burden but by fullness: "Your cup just fills, and it runs over." The One Thing to Change: If Angela could change one thing about how funders and evaluators determine whether they're making a difference, it's simple: Go back to the community. Ask them. The people most affected should have a voice in defining what success looks like and what those metrics actually are.
