Illinois's Director of the Office of Broadband Matt Schmit is empowering local governments and communities ahead of BEAD projects

Director of the Illinois Office of Broadband, Matt Schmit, has been working for over 20 years in economic development, and began his public interest career as a grad student at University of Minnesota. There, he spent his spare time doing consulting work with local communities to take stock of their connectivity needs and make use of federal broadband funding programs. At the Illinois Office of Broadband, he says he’s doing similar work as the state looks to allocate over $1 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds. Schmit is optimistic about the outcome of BEAD in Illinois. “We’re in a position to actually achieve universal connectivity,” he said. He attributes that to three things: a robust state broadband office and grant program, a close relationship with local governments throughout the BEAD planning process, and partnerships with outside organizations. Schmit’s office has also put effort into preparing counties and other local governments in Illinois for deploying broadband infrastructure. He said Illinois 50 counties and neighborhoods have gone through at least one training program run by his office as the state has disbursed broadband grants.