Women’s History Month: Melissa Fields

Published on March 27, 2024

by Logan Lover
Communications Division

“Women’s History Month is a constant reminder that we as women are smart, powerful and can accomplish anything we put our minds to,” Fields said. “It gives me inspiration and a lot of hope. All things are possible. It takes the fear our of what you’re trying to accomplish and makes you want to do more.”

Street Supervisor Melissa Fields has served in her role at CATS for nearly 28 years. Fields says she has tenure for a reason, and that reason being her love for the job. She encourages other CATS employees to make a career out of their jobs.

“I encourage people to have a career here,” Fields said. “I motivate them to want to work at CATS and do good. We are here to help the public and transport people safely. Be safe and kind and you’ll be here for a long time.”

Fields’ responsibilities vary day to day – from investigating accidents to monitoring routes to de-escalating incidents to ride evaluations to assisting with interviews to helping implementing bus bridges, and everything in between! At the end of the day, though, Fields loves interacting with the different groups of people and solving problems.

“A lot of people depend on me to help them succeed,” Fields said. “When there’s a problem, everyone calls Melissa. People really appreciate my opinion, and it makes me feel really good that people depend on me; it makes me want to come to work every day.”

Fields says there are many women within CATS and her team whom she admires, specifically for their honesty, loyalty, reliability and willingness to be team players.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with wonderful women at CATS,” Fields said. “There’s no limit to what they can do.”

She makes an impact through her work by leading by example and making everyone feel like their contributions count. Fields says she is also always accessible and there to assist others, including her team members and the public CATS serves.

“The other day, they called for a supervisor to go pick up someone that was visually impaired at South Park,” Fields said. “I went to pick him up and I had just seen him at the University City Boulevard Station a few days before. I ended up spending an hour and a half with this young man because he wanted to go to Harris Teeter and Belk to purchase a tie.”

As we wrap up Women’s History Month, we celebrate Fields and all the women who help make CATS the great organization it is.

Back to CATS Chronicles