Jill Ellsworth is the founder and CEO of Willow Industries, the leader in cannabis post-harvest microbial decontamination and infusion technology. As a Registered Dietitian with a Master of Science in Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, her passion for pasteurization techniques began in the food and beverage industry as she built and sold the brands Vibrant Earth Juices, a Santa Barbara-based cold-pressed organic juice company, and beverage distribution company, Vibrant Earth Distribution, which launched the first alcoholic kombucha brand in Colorado.
After selling both companies, Jill transitioned into the legal cannabis industry to address the lack of health and safety standards in this emerging market. In 2015, leveraging her science and consumer safety expertise, Jill founded Willow Industries, the industry's first cannabis decontamination company. Her mission was, and continues to be, providing cultivators with a solution to cannabis contamination and ensuring patients and consumers have access to consistently clean, safe products. Her patented WillowPure systems use organic, ozone-based technology to break down harmful microbes living on cannabis without affecting the medicinal properties of the plant.
Most recently, Jill co-invented the Halo Pro, a precision infusion system for distillate and terpenes purpose-built for the rapidly growing biomass infusion & pre-roll category. Since the company's founding, Jill has raised over $4 million in institutional capital for nationwide expansion and the development of new, innovative products.
Driven by a belief that microbial safety and intelligence should work together, Jill is also the inventor and co-founder of Mira Science, the Agentic Lab Tech platform for microbial and clinical diagnostics. Mira automates plate culture interpretation with an AI-powered platform that delivers standardized audit and compliance tools through a mobile-first workflow, bringing consistency and efficiency to labs that have long relied on manual, time-intensive processes.
Jill has established herself as a leading voice for consumer safety and integrity in the cannabis industry. She continues to be an innovative trailblazer by standardizing quality and empowering cultivators with the cannabis kill step and quality assurance programs. Jill was honored on Inc.'s Female Founders 250 list (2024). In 2019, Jill was named on MJBizDaily's list of Women to Watch in Cannabis and was selected by Greendorphin as one of the 20 Most Influential Women in Cannabis. Jill was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the "Innovator of the Year" category on the Titan Women in Business Awards (2022), listed on the Forbes Cannabis 42.0 list as one of the top entrepreneurs and change-makers in the industry (2022 & 2023), and named Top Executive - Woman of the Year by Green Market Report's Women's Leadership Awards (2023).