Latest WordCamp News

Dr. Sherry Walling is a licensed clinical psychologist, the co-host of the ZenFounder podcast, and is the life force behind ZenFounder.com, a consultancy that helps entrepreneurs tend to their mental health.

Sherry has a PhD in clinical psychology, a couple of master’s degrees and has been a researcher and a tenure-track professor. And to round out her geek credentials, she’s been married to a serial entrepreneur for 18 years. Though not technically a WordPress geek, she loves hanging out with the WordPress community and sharing her unique combination of psychological expertise and years of experience in the startup trenches.

Her book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together came out in February 2018.

When she’s not in the consulting room or hopping conferences; Sherry can be found on her paddleboard, in the yoga studio, or doing her best not to break her own WordPress sites.

Hailing from the Great State of Wisconsin, Marc is the Operations Manager of ServerPress, LLC, a software company focused on workflow products and services pertaining to the WordPress Community. He has spoken, organized, and worked as a sponsor for several WordCamps over the past several years, and he believes strongly that the Community is what makes WordPress so powerful. He has spoken on topics ranging from Business, Marketing, Customer Service, Development, and Fitness as well as talking about WordCamps AT WordCamps.

Marc lives in Milwaukee with his wife, nine children, three cats, two dogs, his son’s snake, and a bunch of fish. In between times with the family and work, he enjoys his photography and working out. OK, that working out part isn’t true. Marc actually hates working out. He does it anyway.

Diana Espino is a Zend Certified PHP Engineer with 19 years experience in Full Stack development. She specializes in large-scale web apps, modern PHP & JavaScript frameworks, growing engineering teams, and creating great engineering culture. Recently, Diana was recognized by Google as a Passionate Woman in Technology and has co-organized 2 of the Top PHP Conferences in the States – SunshinePHP & WordCamp Miami.

Bobby has been involved in the WordPress space as a Developer for over 4 years. Prior to getting involved with WordPress he spent 13+ years in the United States Marines as Ground Electronics Technician.

Bobby currently works at Crossfield Digital as a Senior Web Engineer. At Crossfield Bobby has been tasked with building and grow a team focused on solving client problems with WordPress. Over the past 2+ years Bobby has spent a lot of his time building Javascript applications with WordPress. Bobby also runs a Youtube channel called Developwithwp, which has over 12k subscribers and almost 1 million views.

Prior too working at Crossfield Bobby worked at 10up, where he learned the art of pushing WordPress to new heights.

Matt is Head of Support and Community Outreach at GiveWP.com and WordImpress.com. He is the author of several popular free plugins and the Lead Admin of the Advanced WordPress Facebook group (which boasts over 30K+ members). He’s a popular blogger at his personal site (mattcromwell.com), wordimpress.com, givewp.com, and mediatemple.net.

Scott is the Founder and Creative Director of Highforge, an Orlando-based service agency focused on helping medium and enterprise businesses lead and succeed online. He’s an Emmy- winning commercial writer that’s sold millions in projects and generated hundreds of millions in new revenues for clients since 2001. He’s been managing commercial WordPress projects since 2009.

He loves to solve problems, make clients happy and help creatives achieve their destinies. He digs racquetball, travel backpacking, scuba, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, festivals, Bob’s Burgers, fine tequila and a non-profit called Be the Match that helps save lives. Ask him why.

Pat Ramsey oversees all aspects of the technology group at Crowd Favorite as Director of Technology. He has worked with WordPress since 2004, using it as a publishing platform, marketing tool, and content management system in higher education, small-businesses, publishing, and enterprise businesses. Active in the Web and WordPress communities since 2005, Pat is one of the original organizers of the WordPress meetup in Austin, a tech community that has grown from a little over 200 members meeting once a month, to over 1700 members and three or four events a month. He’s also a core member of the web tech networking community, Refresh Austin and has been a trainer and advisor for Knowbility’s Accessible Internet Rallies and AccessU.

Karim Marucchi is the CEO of Crowd Favorite and Chairman of The VeloMedia Group. In the past 20 years, his career path has encompassed a variety of opportunities including founding startups, working for large web agencies and taking companies public. This wealth of experience in taking digital teams across the globe has provided Karim with the necessary foundation and institutional knowledge in leading Crowd Favorite into the growing multinational organization it has become today.

April helps individuals and business become the best versions of themselves. This may come in the form of a new, or better, web site, or coaching to break through self-imposed limitations. As Director at Sugar Five Design specializes  in helping high-performers reach their goals online. She is heavily involved in Atlanta WordPress community, as a co-organizer of the Woodstock WordPress Meetup and am a former organizer for WordCamp Atlanta. As lead instructor at Local Service Academy she helps local service providers put growth strategies into action.

Irina Blumenfeld is a Web Consultant and Founder of Netmagik, a WordPress development company, based in Orlando. She has been building things on the web over 15 years. Prior to beginning her career, Irina studied Management Information Systems and Computer Science. Over the years, she branched out her skills to responsive design with a focus on website performance.
Originally from Ukraine, Irina has lived in the Orlando area for more than 20 years. While she is not working, she enjoys running and spending time with her husband and 2 girls.

Pam is the owner of Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth™ Search and Analytics. Both specialize in SEO, PPC, and Analytics. Through Stealth™, we work on a private-label basis through other agencies. Through Pam Ann Marketing, we work directly with well-established businesses and funded startups to take their search and analytics strategies to the next level.

Naomi’s been working with WordPress as a professional developer since 2005, and you can find her at gravityplus.pro, where she specializes in quickly delivering custom business applications at a fraction of the cost, and curating The Gravity Guide. She contributes back to the WordPress project through the core code, the codex documentation, free plugins, organizing the WordPress Gwinnett meetup, organizing WordCamp Atlanta, and speaking at WordCamps.

Christie Chirinos is one of the co-owners and the business development lead at Caldera Labs, a WordPress plugin company best known for its popular contact form plugin, Caldera Forms. Christie started making websites at the age of 14, and before joining Caldera Labs did everything from selling items on eBay to leading website re-launch projects for major nonprofit organizations – on WordPress, of course. Christie recently received her Master of Business Administration degree from Florida State University (2015), and is currently based out of New York City.

Rick Tuttle is a Senior Web Developer at National Auto Lenders in Miami Lakes where he leads a team building web and mobile apps. Rick is a supporter of the local tech community as an organizer and speaker at WordCamp Miami and other local meetups. He is a musician and an aspiring fiction author.

Rick is “The Guy in the Chair” for WordCamp Miami. When asked if his consciousness was downloaded in order to create our Wapuu SlackBot Rick said, “Yeah no! Pero like, we’re primos…supposably.” You can find Rick at papasoft.com.

Kevin joined Human Made in 2017, as a Senior WordPress Engineer. Before working with Human Made, he has worked for various agencies and had a large stint freelancing as well. Over the years, Kevin has expanded his knowledge of WordPress by working on projects ranging from small microsites to enterprise level customizations for companies such as ESPN, Disney, and BigTen Networks.

John is one of the WordPress core developers, a member of the WordPress security team, and was the release lead for WordPress 4.1. He works as a senior developer at Human Made in the UK, and has over ten years’ experience developing with WordPress.

Nicole has designed websites professionally since 2006, with the last 3 years focused on WordPress development. Currently she is a Designer/Front End Developer for BoldGrid and living in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In her spare time she enjoys listening to music, playing board games, and watching Star Wars with her two young children.

Grzegorz is a passionate code wrangler and open-source contributor based in Oleśnica, Poland. He writes JavaScript at Automattic and helps develop Gutenberg – the new WordPress editing experience. When not coding, Grzegorz enjoys spending time with his adorable wife and daughter. He likes traveling to new places and playing basketball with his friends.

Roxana Colorado is a business strategist dedicated to helping you launch, grow or rescue your business. Founder & CEO of @Dare2BNYC.

Roxana has lived in seven countries throughout Europe, Latin America and Africa for work, volunteer, and study abroad opportunities. In addition, she brings over ten years of project management experience working with Fortune 500 corporations. Since leaving the financial sector in 2010, Roxana has leveraged her entrepreneurial experience coupled with her philanthropic accomplishments to provide clients with the clarity, knowledge, and skills required to establish the businesses and lifestyles they desire.

Zach is the Chief Executive Officer at Mindsize, where he leads a team that designs, builds and optimizes e-commerce storefronts. He’s been active in the e-commerce space for 5 years and has been building websites for over two decades. He’s spoken everywhere from IBM to Ogilvy on topics ranging from Designer/Developer Workflow to What Agencies Need to Know About E-Commerce. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time behind the lens as a professional concert photographer and photojournalist.

Josh Pollock is the founder and lead developer of Caldera Labs, creators of Caldera Forms, a drag and drop responsive form builder for WordPress. He is also a WordPress core contributor, author of two books about WordPress development and a member of The WPCrowd.

Miles, who is currently 11, lives to learn about tech. With several years of programming study already under his belt, Miles specializes in Python but has also studied C/C++, HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript and more. Born in to a wired world, Miles sees technology as a positive asset. He believes there is room for technology in everyone’s life and room for anyone, of any age, within the tech community.

Miles has contributed as a passionate committee member for Be The Difference Foundation, Sofia’s Hope, and Polyblox Totems educational toys. When hanging out at home, Miles can be found solving Rubiks cubes of all shapes and sizes, practicing American Sign Language and working on his newest web project using WordPress www.LanguageIsNotaBarrier.com a site devoted to fostering world peace.

Cody is an e-commerce consultant focused on helping stores with sales and technical challenges. Co-founder at Mode Effect.

Chris is a full time Back End Developer for Modern Tribe.  Chris has dreamed of working with Tribe for a couple years so he pushed myself to reach the level needed to work there.  Now he can confidently and proudly say he loves his job, and his co-workers and the work he does.  WooCommerce has been his specialty for a three years and he works with it daily at Tribe.

Sandy Edwards has been working in the online marketing space for over 7 years. She started at a niche firm that utilized WordPress to create sites quickly utilizing several options frameworks. Today, she owns Data Driven Labs to bring analytics to all size companies. She loves to give back by teaching kids about coding, WordPress, and other technical skills. Sandy is very active in the Orlando WordPress community and is excited to see what 2018 will bring to the tech space in Florida!

Louise is an eternal web development geek and social media junkie. She’s a native of Metro Detroit and an alumna of the University of Michigan. She learned about the human side of computer science while earning a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and has fined tuned her web developer skills over the course of a 20+ year career building, breaking, and fixing sites for a multitude of startups. She’s never had a “real” job or worked in a real office and thus is quite well-versed on the realities of being a successful freelancer, remote contractor, and small business owner. Louise loves coffee, is full of useless facts, and is eagerly waiting for her shot on Jeopardy. She lives in South Florida with her three bouncing boys and her husband.

Carole is a former Luxembourgish government agent on a four-year sabbatical to take care of her health and to find new professionally enjoyable challenges. She lives in the German Eifel since 2014 together with her husband and three French bulldogs.

The magic of WordCamp Europe 2016 in Vienna made her become a true WordPress Community-Junkie. Through several WordCamps as a passionate volunteer, she got involved in the organization of WordCamps without even having used WordPress before. Meanwhile, she works as a WordPress Community Manager for Plesk.

Raquel Landefeld* is a serial volunteer with a young soul. In 2010 she co-founded Mode Effect, a Phoenix-based WordPress agency that specializes in WooCommerce integration. Intentional about community building, she believes that wherever her feet are is where the building happens. Currently she is active in several communities from tech to government to neighborhoods and more. You can usually find her organizing a WordCamp or volunteering pretty much anywhere.

On the personal side of her life she is a wife & mum, an active dancer, a music lover, an amateur photographer, and has a 20-year-curated Wonder Woman collection.

*Loves doing cartwheels

John Maeda is an American executive spearheading a new convergence across the design + technology industries. He joined Automattic in 2016 as Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion and previously served as Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a world-leading venture capital firm and was the 16th President of the Rhode Island School of Design.

His books include The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code and Redesigning Leadership. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering + Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from Arizona State U, and a PhD from University of Tsukuba in Japan. Maeda was the recipient of the White House’s National Design Award, the Tribeca Film Festival’s Disruptive Innovation Award for STEM to STEAM, the Blouin Foundation’s Creative Leadership Award, the AIGA Medal, the Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize, the Mainichi Design Prize, the Tokyo Type Director’s Club Prize, and induction into the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame.

Based in Arlington, Virginia, Tara Claeys is the owner of Design TLC, and a co-founder of Nice Work, LLC, producing custom websites for small and medium businesses. Tara’s focus is on private school and non profit websites, although she has also worked on business-to-business, restaurant, e-commerce and real estate projects. She works closely with her clients to create effective, clean and personal communication platforms.

Tara is obsessed with digital efficiency and productivity tools and techniques.

In addition to running her own companies, she is a regular attendee at the WordPress DC Meetup and runs the Arlington/NoVa WordPress branch of this Meetup. Tara is also a co-host of the podcast Hallway Chats.

WordPress. BuddyPress. bbPress. Sandhills. Co-host WordPress Weekly. East Troy, WI Village Trustee. Conquistador de la Web.