The Affordable Care Act recognizes Community Health Workers (CHWs) as lay health professionals that promote positive health behaviors and outcomes for patients in medically underserved communities. Despite this validation, there remains a lack of awareness, and some controversy, about the role of CHWs, the value of their work, and ultimately how their roles relate to primary care. The purpose of this feature article is to increase awareness about the contributions of community health workers to primary prevention and to report several key issues identified in the literature and from organizations working with CHWS about their evolving and multifaceted role in improving primary care and population health.