Authors: Jon Willow

Summary

Willow’s original fellowship aimed to analyze the potential of AI tools to address critical challenges in coalition building and organizational collaboration, with a specific use-case focus on the Michigan Highspeed Internet (MIHI) office’s MITTEN regions. With the elimination of non-deployment BEAD funding, her focus shifted to supporting the development of robust and flexible internal AI governance policies for local governments and community-based nonprofits. 

Author Information

Jon Willow's impact in Michigan is particularly notable through her extensive support of communities and coalitions working towards better local broadband. Through the Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN), which she co-founded in 2018, Jon has helped to build a network of 200+ members in 35 states and several Canadian territories, including numerous Michigan communities, governments, and local broadband providers.

Her technical expertise as a Certified Professional Scrum Master and Data Manager for CBAN's Digital Navigator Program - one of 18 selected for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance's pilot cohort - demonstrates her capacity to leverage data for community impact. Jon excels at developing user-friendly workflows and data visualizations that transform complex information into actionable insights for community partners.

Before co-founding CBAN, Jon lived and owned businesses in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for 22 years, successfully exiting all three of her companies. She has been a mentor for SCORE and the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), where she also served on the loan committee. She is the former Entrepreneurship Director for BizStarts Milwaukee, where she coached new and scaling companies and ran a quarterly SEC-accredited investor event that showcased Southeast Wisconsin’s most promising companies. Willow's "first career" was in journalism, where she spent nearly two decades covering state and local politics, business, and economic development in print, online, and as a Milwaukee television commentator and program host.