Our Story
Audra and Makinna both have educational backgrounds in Anthropology and Global/Public Health, and a collective 15 years of experience working and volunteering in local and state health departments, nonprofit organizations, and health clinics, giving them broad insight into systems and the communities they serve.
After working as Public Health Consultants for four years, Audra and Makinna started Community Compass Consulting to bring grounded systems change work that centers the knowledge, priorities, and lived expertise of the communities themselves.
We bring the expertise and passion to design and facilitate inclusive, participatory processes.
Our clients don't just get a deliverable. They get an experience that builds trust with their communities, and decisions they can stand behind because the people most affected helped shape them.
Co-Founder | (she/her)Audra Baca, MPH, MA, CHES
Audra Baca is a born and raised Oregonian who has lived, worked, and traveled across the state. Passionate about an effective public sector, she is a human-centered systems thinker with over a decade of experience in program design, community engagement, planning, and evaluation. Health equity has been the central thread throughout, not as a lens applied to the work, but as the purpose of it. Deeply committed to accessibility and inclusion, she brings community-partnered participatory methodologies, popular education principles, and plain language into everything she does. Her goal is for participation to be real, not just procedural or extractive, and for the systems meant to serve communities to actually be led by them.
Currently, Audra is a Health Equity Program Director for a multi-state oral health care organization and is involved with the Oregon Public Health Association, specifically the Weight-Inclusive Health Special Interest Section. Outside of work, you'll likely find her on long walks with our Barketing Manager, Bert, doing one of her many hobbies (learning or practicing music, Spanish, dance), or watching tv, because she really loves tv.
Co-Founder | (she/they)Makinna Miles, MPH
Makinna is energized by processes that center equity, accessibility, and shared power. She brings her humanity to professional spaces and encourages others to do the same, centering warmth and trauma-informed practices to foster deeper collaboration and ensure that all feel heard, valued, and empowered. Makinna uses mixed-methods approaches that honor community knowledge, celebrate difference, and build trust, while producing rigorous, actionable insights. They have led engagement efforts with local governments, coalitions, and public service agencies, including large countywide processes. Through these efforts, she supports groups in moving from dialogue to impact, strengthening capacity and advancing lasting change.
Makinna is also currently a paralegal and volunteers with Our Streets, Sunnyside Shower Project, and Games Done Quick. She’s also likely to be found reading or writing a short story, playing pinball, or profusely apologizing for spilling/dropping whatever she’s meant to be holding.
