Aaron Jorbin
Aaron is a polyhistoric man of the web who knows rabble rousers get shit done. Currently Aaron is the Director of Engineering for Some Spider, where he supports the editorial and business teams on scarymommy.com and cafe.com. He is also a WordPress Core Committer that focuses on improving developer happiness and making the internet usable and enjoyable by everyone. He tweets at @aaronjorbin and writes regularly at daily.jorb.in.
Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
With nearly two decades of professional technology experience, Alex oversees all business functions at Zivtech and Probo.ci, from sales and marketing, to client relations, human resources, and business strategy. Alex has a deep passion for Open Source and for using technology to make work and life more awesome!
Alex has always had a knack for technology and loves teaching non-technical users. While attending The New School’s Eugene Lang College in Manhattan, Alex taught himself how to administer Windows and Macintosh computers. He landed a job as a systems and LAN administrator for over 7 years, mostly for The New School’s Parsons Fashion School. At Parsons, Alex obtained a second degree, got married, and lived through three summers of Project Runway.
Andy Stitt
Andy Stitt is the chief WordPress developer and email marketing manager at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. He has a passion for nonprofits, running, 90’s hip-hop, and single malt scotch.
Beth Fritzinger
I’m graphic designer, turned content manager, with a passion for web governance. Working in Syracuse University’s Office of Marketing and Communications as an undergraduate student led to a full-time job post-graduation where I was introduced to the world of WordPress and content strategy. As the web content publishing coordinator I am responsible for managing 400+ pages on Syracuse.edu by coordinating with subject matter experts, marketing professionals, and our web team.
Brad Williams
Brad Williams is the co-founder and CEO of WebDevStudios.com. He is also a co-author of the books Professional WordPress and Professional WordPress Plugin Development. Brad founded the Philly WordPress Meetup in 2010, co-organized the first five WordCamp Philly events, and also co-organized both WordCamp US events held in Philly. He has been developing websites for more than 20 years, including the last 10 where he has focused on open-source technologies like WordPress.
Carlos Zuniga
Originally from Los Angeles, I’ve lived in Philadelphia the past 8 years. I’m currently lead Web Developer for Yikes, Inc. I’m also a General Translation Editor for WordPress Spanish (Mexico). When I’m not working I’m father to the coolest 4-year-old in South Philly.
Christina Deemer
I am a UX Developer at Interactive Mechanics, where I build sites, apps, and exhibit interactives for arts, culture, and higher ed clients and co-founded Interactive Mechanics’ fellowship program for diversity and inclusion in tech. I am an active TA and volunteer with Girl Develop It Philly and was a 2015 Code for Philly Open Source Mentorship Program fellow.
I came to tech later in life, after a 12-year career as a fundraiser for some of Philadelphia’s most prestigious arts organizations. I wrote my first line of code at age 35 and built my first of many custom WordPress themes at 37. I enjoy writing front- and back-end code, and am learning to do fun things with Raspberry Pis and Arduinos. Outside of tech, I enjoy reading, cooking, and watching classic films.
Christina Strommer
Christina is a small-business owner creating and maintaining WordPress sites as well as helping organizations with online communications and media. She is a household chef, music enthusiast, hobbyist photographer, and frequent reader.
Christopher Lauzon
Chris has worked for several start-ups in the Austin TX area for years, focusing mostly on eCommerce solutions in a technical support role. He moved on to becoming the director of support at WP Engine, and then a Happiness Engineer at Automattic. He is now the CEO of Pressable, a Managed WordPress hosting company.
Daniel Olson
Dan is the COO at DigitalCube, a WordPress solutions company with offices in the US and Japan. He lives and works in Philadelphia PA, home to the first WordCamp US.
His work includes building WordPress SaaS products focused on security and scalability, offering advanced security services through AWS, and providing managed web hosting support for eCommerce clients, large media organizations and higher education.
Away from the keyboard he enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, eating everything, tasting all the beers, traveling to meet new people and helping with the family business, a pet boutique and bakery named Amelie’s Bark Shop.
Diane Varner
By day, I work as a digital marketing and content strategist and by night, I act as digital marketing super hero for local businesses and organizations.
Dustin Leer
I do branding & build things on the web. I work with WordPress & Magento. Learning more about JS and CLI! I ♥ WordPress. I do the CrossFits. 🏋️♂️
Joe Casabona
Joe Casabona is a Front End Developer and course creator that works in WordPress…a lot. You can find his courses over at WP in One Month. He also hosts a weekly podcast called, How I Built It, where he interviews product developers and business owners about how they create.
Jonathan Belcher
Jonathan (JB) Belcher is a developer specializing in building applications on the web platform utilizing a variety of technologies. He is a Web Technologies Google Developer Expert and a panelist on the Polymer podcast. He is also a co-organizer of PHL UX, Philadelphia Javascript Developers, and LibertyJS conference.
Since joining Automattic, JB has worked on a variety of projects including the WooCommerce react admin for WordPress.com, WooCommerce.com React new user experience, WooCommerce.com continuous integration build systems, WooCommerce.com code linting, WooCommerce and WP-Calypso style linters, and is Technical Co-Lead with his favorite creative for WooConf 2017.
At SunGard, JB helped clients build large scale web applications. He worked with the Comcast XFINITY Home team to build their IoT web interface utilizing Polymer. Before joining SunGard, he worked on the Viridity Energy VPowerTM Platform, another application built primarily in AngularJS. At Stuzo, Jonathan helped build experiences for Fortune 100 companies using AngularJS. He was also part of the team building Meg.com, which assists web asset owners engage their visitors.
Previously, JB has worked for a DoD contractor, ran a one person freelance shop, and taught English in China. He received a BA in Economics and East Asian Studies from Washington and Lee University. He lives in South Philadelphia with his wife and Boston Terrier.
Jonathan Ober
I am a WordPress Designer/Developer in Lancaster, PA for 10+ years. I have created sites for various clients from small to medium sized businesses. I am a husband, father and foster dad. I love love teaching others about WordPress and how they can set themselves up for success on the web.
Kerch McConlogue
Kerch McConlogue, retired ADHD coach and front end developer, has been writing code by hand for 18 years and using WordPress since version 1.5. Her passion is helping WordPress novices to understand the basic care and feeding of their own sites and to get past their fears of breaking the internet.
Kim Coleman
Kim is co-founder of Paid Memberships Pro, a complete membership solution for WordPress founded in 2011. The plugin adds a new revenue source to sites with extensive features for level setup, pricing, restricting content and member benefits. Like most business owners, she wears many hats within the team including frontend developer, designer, copywriter, content marketer and all-around customer support therapist.
Kim is organizer of the Reading WordPress Meetup. In her (limited) free time, Kim enjoys homesteading with her veggie garden and flock of seven chickens. She has an 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter who attend a Montessori school in Berks County.
Follow Kim on Twitter @colemank83.
Kim White
While the www was just getting popular I learned to build websites to show off my growing family. In 1999 I made it my career and later returned to school to build up my skill set. I love WordPress and started the Lehigh Valley Meetup in 2014. Currently, I serve as a chapter leader for GDI Lehigh Valley.
Laura Byrne-Cristiano
Laura started her first WordPress site back in March 2006. She grew it from obscurity to millions of views a day. Since then, she’s created/written for over twenty WordPress sites mostly in the areas of education and entertainment. She is one of the WordCamp US 2017 organizers heading up marketing and communications. Aside from her her love of WordPress, Laura is also an Anglophile, avid traveler, theater lover, fantasy junkie, and occasional actor. She currently writes for Hypable.com and does freelance marketing and social media work.
Lauren Pittenger
I’m a front end designer and WordPress & JavaScript/jQuery instructor. In my free time, I like to paint and snuggle puppies.
Lisa Sabin-Wilson
Lisa Sabin-Wilson is the third partner and co-founder of WD3, LLC / WebDevStudios. Prior to joining WebDev in November 2012, she was Founder and Creative Director at eWebscapes, a custom design studio that provides professional design solutions for people and businesses that she ran since 2004.
Lisa is a very active member in the WordPress community contributing to the education of users, both new and advanced, about the platform through her travels and appearances at various WordCamps around the country. Lisa is also sought after as a regular public speaker at national events on topics such as WordPress, Development, Design, CSS and Social Media.
Lou Fuiano
I have owned and operated my own graphic design studio since 1990. One of my first jobs out of art school was working for a typographer here in Philadelphia where I learned to love the visual impact of typographic form.
Early design years were spent doing marketing communication for retailers and corporate clients as well as designing award-winning book covers for publishers in Philadelphia and New York. Between 1999 and 2006 I taught visual design for print and new media at Temple University and at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
I started working with a CMS called Expression Engine in 2009 and discovered WordPress shortly after. I soon began to befriend members of the WordPress community. The support throughout gave me the confidence to build in WP and sell those services to my clients
Marc Coleman (Keynote Speaker)
Marc is the founder, chief executive officer and president of The Tactile Group — a Philadelphia-based application development and web design agency. With a diverse staff of 14 in 2017, the firm’s mission states “Designed to give a damn, we actively seek work whose goal is to improve the quality of life for all people.” The company’s clients include the U.S. Department of Education, the City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia International Airport, PGW, and the City of Boston.
Matt Ryan
Matt has a WordPress consultancy business offering custom website development and monthly website maintenance. Originally from Baltimore, MD, he now calls Downingtown, PA, home. He is back into development after a long hiatus having survived for a time as a network project manger and software channel manager.”
He has become a Phillies fan over the last 20 years, but tends to favor the minor league teams in Reading and Lehigh Valley. He and his wife are empty nesters. You can find him at MattRyan.co or on Twitter at @mattry.
Mika Epstein
Mika Ariela Epstein is better known as Ipstenu, the Half-Elf Rogue. Working for DreamHost and specializing in WordPress, Mika helps make WordPress and hosting better for everyone. When she isn’t reviewing plugins or rebuilding the stack, she’s speaking at WordCamps worldwide about code and open source technology. A self-taught guru on Multisite and .htaccess, she has a passion for writing and technology.
Pam Ann Aungst
I own an agency in NJ that specializes in SEO & PPC. We have a very strong reputation for being experts in results-driven white-hat SEO and highly-effective PPC campaigns.
Paul Barthmaier
With advanced degrees in linguistics and heaps of natural curiosity, Paul Barthmaier applies his love of languages to the beauty of WordPress when building plugins and themes that make client websites sing.
Sal Ferrarello
Sal started programming on a Commodore 64 when he was eight years old. He went on to become a web developer and educator specializing in WordPress. Sal’s past also includes work as a beach photographer, magician/juggler, and high school calculus teacher. He contributes to WordPress core, the Genesis framework, and various other open source projects.
Sal writes regularly about programming at https://salferrarello.com/.
Tara Claeys (Moderator)
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. Her focus is on education 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.
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.
Outside of work, Tara is a runner, a cyclist, and a musical theater enthusiast.
Keep an eye out for Tara on Twitter: @design_tlc
Tom Carney
I have been a WordPress designer and developer since 2009. I love developing custom themes and plugins that involves new programming languages or creative processes.
Tom Rose
Tom Rose is a web developer based in West Philadelphia. He’s been building websites for nearly two decades. For the past 11 years, he’s worked as a freelancer, building custom WordPress themes for clients.
When he’s not working on the web, he enjoys traveling, baking bread and exploring the incredible city of Philadelphia with his wife, Jamie.
Tracy Rotton
Tracy is the Founder and Principal of Taupecat Studios, a digital media agency that specializes in custom WordPress development. She has twenty years of professional web development experience and is a front-end expert. She is also a core WordPress contributor and co-organizer of WordPress D.C. Originally from South Jersey, she now lives with her husband and two children in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.