Melissa Kono is an Associate Professor in the Community Development Institute with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. Melissa is the co-author of a recent publication, “Rural Pharmacies an Overlooked Piece of the Rural Health Care Milieu“. She provides training on election law and processes to election workers in five Wisconsin counties and has trained volunteer groups on voter registration and is part of the Women and Political Ambition research group through the University of Wisconsin Extension. She is a contributor to the “Creative Use of Downtown Buildings in Small Towns” publication. Melissa has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Economic Development, Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota

Steve Deller is a Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Community Economic Development Specialist with Extension. His work focuses on modeling community and small regional economies to better understand the changing dynamics of the economy, assess the impact of those changes, and identify local economic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.