Jason Fields Named Center for Black Excellence and Culture COO: Building a Dream (Part 1 of 2)
Jason Fields was a State Representative from Milwaukee and CEO of MadREP before joining the Center.
by Jonathan Gramling
Jason Fields, the newly announced COO, chief operating officer, of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture, brings a wealth of experience to the Center as it rises from the grounds of the old Nehemiah building and seeks to become a Wisconsin and national destination point for the Black community and beyond.
Fields is a native of Milwaukee who worked as a stockbroker, financial advisor and banker before he entered the rough and tumble world of Milwaukee politics. Fields was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 2004, but was defeated in a primary in 2012 by Mandela Barnes who ran to the left of Fields.
“We are cool,” Fields said of his relationship to Barnes. “He’s a good guy. I’m really impressed with what he is doing and I am looking to get caught up with him. I’ve been watching some of his progress and his transition.”
Fields hit a low point in his life and suffered from depression and alcoholism. But in 2016, Fields met his wife and through her love, he turned everything around.
“When I look at what’s happening in my life, she’s been a pivotal force, just the encouragement and being around,” Fields said. “We’re both working on our Ph.D.s from Concordia University. She graduates next year. And it’s just been fun.”
Re-energized, Fields entered the political arena once again.
“I ran for the Assembly back in 2016 and won,” Fields said. “And then in 2020, I decided to run for comptroller in the city of Milwaukee. If I won that, perhaps in four years, I would run for mayor. I lost by 800 votes. That was tough. 80,000 people voted. And it was during COVID-19 when the city of Milwaukee shut down 26 voting locations. And when you look at where those voting locations were at … The former treasurer was Marty Madsen. And then his deputy, Aycha Sawa who is now the chief financial officer for MPS, Alex Brower, a substitute teacher and I ran. And I lost by 800 votes.”
For Fields, there was definitely something gained by his service in the state legislature — something he may not have appreciated at the time.
“Robin Vos and I came in at the same time,” Fields said. The late Tamara Grigsby, Todd Nelson and Joe Parisi were also in my freshman class. I came in with some people who went on to do some great things. You top it off with Mark Pocan being your seatmate, the guy who every day is on the floor with you, I am learning from him. I watched him in the Joint Finance Committee. He gave me the ins and outs. I had a good class. Knowing how that worked and then being able to work with a number of people whom I even disagreed with was an invaluable experience.
In 2021, Fields was named the CEO of Madison Regional Economic Partnership, commonly referred to as MadREP. It was an invigorating change of scenery for Fields.
“Madison was very different from Milwaukee in a number of ways,” Fields said. “But what I loved about this culture here was that you can’t deny everyone wants to see this place grow and be good. How we get there, we’ll have some differences. But there is no denying that we all want this place to go well. It was a phenomenal culture. It was one of the very times when my wife and I moved here, we had Black and White people reaching out to us saying welcome. I’ll be honest. That doesn’t happen in Milwaukee. It was fascinating. We enjoy and love it. But there is still work to do.”
Ikt was also exciting for Fields to be working on economikc development, something that would benefit from his private sector and public sector experience.
“It was a wonderful experience working on economic development in eight counties in South Central Wisconsin, roughly a million people,” Fields said. “The goal was to really start looking at how do we turn MadREP into a regional economic development organization. When you look at most of the board members, it was predominantly all Dane County. And then we moved to getting individuals from the other counties like Dodge, Rock, Columbia on the board of MadREP to really start looking at how we tie in a couple of things: rural and urban relationships.”
Over the course of four years, Fields worked to reposition MadREP so that it reflected more a regional effort. While Madison and Dane County were definitely the growth engine of the region, every county had something to contribute so that the whole was more than the sum of the parts.
“The world is smaller now,” Fields said. “And now with the working from home, people looking for space, sometimes the housing market in the city of Madison is tight, we need to have a strategy on what’s going to make this region more attractive to a number of individuals.”
Through the board composition and relationships established, MadREP could position itself to assist the efforts of other regional actors.
“When things happen, we should get a call,” Fields said. “You look at the Kikkoman deal that happened in Jefferson County, MadREP played an instrumental role in that. The Amazon in Cottage Grove, whether people agree or not, we weighed in on that. We don’t weigh in necessarily on policy items. But part of our role at MadREP was when Amazon reached out to say, ‘Hey, if you are going to be doing some stuff, let’s look at what kind of organizations of people of color and women you are working with.”
They also worked on some private sector projects that would eventually lead to private sector investment.
“We partnered with Sauk County on their bike trail and won maybe $2 million from Dane County and $2 million for Sauk County and MadREP is doing some economic planning on that,” Fields said.
MadREP played a role in many of the initiatives that would lead to future economic growth.
“We played a role in Madison becoming an IT Hub,” Fields said. “We played a role in Madison being awarded that designation as a Tech Hub. What happens now, we don’t know, since it’s a different administration. We also were a key leader in the planning grant between Milwaukee and Madison for the water technology, the Water Hub. And so I think our goal has been having a seat at the table and again, always making sure that when there are things that can make this region expand our power and influence, MadREP has been at the table.”
And by being in a strategic position, Fields was also ablew to ensure that businesses and individuals of color would get in on the action. For instance, the MadREP Diversity Summit each March involved the Urban League as a partner.
“Every spring, there was a great diversity summit. One of the things that we looked at was partnering with Dr. Ruben Anthony, the Urban League CEO, who welcomed me and was on the interview-search committee for me. I got a chance to work and learn from some phenomenal people. And this is where I met Dr. Gee for like the second time and Ruben Anthony. I met the mayor and CEOs.”
And Fields also ensured that people of color were involved in their grants programs through a program where they gave out $12 million to 1,200 businesses to help them grow.
“Most recently, we won the Biz Ready program, where we partner with the city of Madison and AFF Research to do technical training for women and businesses of color in the region,” Fields said. “And at the end of that two years, they’ll get a stipend and some dollars. But the game plan was to look at those businesses and go, ‘Not only do you need access to capital, but you also need some mentoring. You also need a network of people to help you.’”
As Fields neared completing his fourth year at the helm of MadREP, he began to think about the future.
“It got to a point where I was going, ‘I’m 51-years-old,’” Fields reflected. “’And I love doing this. But now, I’m looking at what my purpose in life is. When I look back, what do I want to say that I’ve been a part of?’ MadREP was great. But I think it was time for me to explore some other things. And I hired my vice-president to be the new interim CEO. He’s a smart, bright guy. We brought on some new, energetic go-getters. One of the reasons for me leaving was I was running out of ideas. I’m listening to them talk and I’m going, ‘I never would have thought of that.’ That was me going, ‘Yeah, it’s time for me to leave.’ I was running out of gas and it was time to turn it over to some energetic, vibrant, innovative people. And I think that I did that.”
As the CEO of MadREP, Fields was aware of the development of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture. And when opportunity came a knocking as he prepared to leave MadREP, it was an opportunity he had to explore.
“I heard about this position,” Filds said. “And I talked to my wife. I told her that you don’t see things like this being done across the nation. I can’t really think of any other entity outside of the Washington, D.C. Black Museum. But even with that, they don’t necessarily have the programming that we are looking to do here. And so I decided to apply.”
Next issue: The Role of the COO and the Center for Black Excellence and Culture Vision.