{"id":326809,"date":"2024-02-01T07:45:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T12:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/?p=326809"},"modified":"2024-02-06T10:16:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T15:16:42","slug":"fields-brings-empathy-learned-through-adversity-to-greenville-habitat-emerging-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/black-history-month\/fields-brings-empathy-learned-through-adversity-to-greenville-habitat-emerging-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Fields brings empathy learned through adversity to Greenville Habitat: Emerging Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This is the first in a series of stories running in February on emerging Black leaders in the Greenville community.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tragedy and adversity can push a person in one of two directions \u2014 toward anger and bitterness, or toward empathy and understanding.<\/p>\n

For Joseph Fields<\/strong>, vice president<\/a> of equity for\u00a0Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County<\/strong><\/a>, life confronted him with that choice from an early age.<\/p>\n

He believes his life might have followed a different path but for the grace of God and the influence of remarkable women \u2014 first and foremost his mother, Florine Jefferson.<\/p>\n

Words of wisdom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1986, Fields was barely 2 years old when his father was murdered.\u00a0Seeking safety and community on little more than a hunch, his mother moved the family to Greenville when Fields was 5.<\/p>\n

The family did find connection and belonging here but also further struggles. Fields said moving to South Carolina was a bit of culture shock, as it was the first time he was surrounded by people who didn\u2019t look like him.<\/p>\n

It was also the first time he was called the N-word.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid, your capacity is so small,\u201d Fields said. \u201cYou fight, you get angry \u2026 and sometimes the response was shame even though you didn\u2019t have anything to be ashamed about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through it all, his mother taught him the lessons of dignity, self-worth and empathy that shaped his character and gave him the tools needed to transform adversity into compassion for others.<\/p>\n

Underlying it all was a bedrock message of faith. Fields said he learned to trust God to use the struggles and traumas of life to forge him into the man he has become. Instead of bitterness, it has produced in him a profound sense of gratitude.<\/p>\n

A winding road<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fields has relied on that faith and fortitude throughout his life.<\/p>\n

School was a struggle \u2014 an ordeal, really \u2014 and by the ninth grade he had enough and dropped out.<\/p>\n

But the intervention of his high school basketball coach showed him an alternative path. He earned his GED diploma, enrolled in college and joined Kappa Alpha Psi, which is one of the\u00a0\u201cDivine Nine\u201d<\/a>\u00a0historically black fraternities and sororities of the influential National Pan-Hellenic Council.<\/p>\n

The path from being a struggling student to becoming Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County\u2019s vice president of equity was winding but guided by empathy and an ability to make the people around him feel seen and heard.<\/p>\n

After years as a successful federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security, a training injury brought that career to a close and left Fields looking for a new opportunity to use his skills.<\/p>\n

While a career in law enforcement might not seem like the ideal background for someone in charge of building community and increasing options for Black homeownership, Habitat\u2019s leaders saw Fields\u2019 empathy and tenacity as vital assets to the organization\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

His life has taught him the profound value of compassion, rootedness and connection and motivates him to help others find those anchors in their own lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, once you have that vision, you can\u2019t cut it off and you can\u2019t give it to anybody,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n

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