Paul Barthmaier
A dreamy full-stack developer who loves to explore all that is WordPress, and currently embracing the wave of React js pervading the WordPress experience.
Laura Byrne-Cristiano
Laura started her first WordPress site back in March 2006 when she and a friend and decided to start a website about a then little-known book called Twilight where fans could discuss the novel on a blog and forums. What started as a small site with maybe 30 visitors a week, rapidly grew into the most popular Twilight website on the Internet with millions of visitors each day from around the globe.
Laura was suddenly thrust into a media vortex that included set visits, a book deal, speaking engagements, and too many surreal experiences to count. This lead to Laura transitioning from a career in teaching to one in marketing as she hit the ground running with a whole new skill set including podcasting, video editing, SEO, social media management and content marketing.
Since then, she’s created/written for over twenty WordPress sites in a variety of industries. She is currently a content specialist at Bet Hannon Marketing, and she does freelance marketing and social media work.
Donna Botti
Donna is the owner of Delos Incorporated, a website development and digital marketing company in the Philadelphia area. Donna has been working with WordPress since 2010, creating websites and applications that help businesses grow and improve their processes. Donna frequently speaks to business organizations on how to make the web work for them. She enjoys hanging out with her family, the outdoors and Italian wine.
James Taylor II
James has been writing software for 15 years. It all began when he automated the most mundane and repetitive task you could ever imagine — and his boss liked what he had done! Nowadays, nothing excites James more than helping others realize this same excitement for software and how it can streamline processes and improve their business.
Joe Casabona
Joe Casabona is an accredited college course developer and professor.
He also has his Master’s Degree in Software Engineering, is a Front End Developer, and hosts multiple podcasts.
Joe started freelancing in 2002, and has been a teacher at the college level for over 10 years. His passion in both areas has driven him to build Creator Courses, a school for those who want to create online businesses.
As a big proponent of learning by doing, he loves creating focused, task-driven courses to help students build something. When he’s not teaching, he’s interviewing people for his podcast, How I Built It.
Sue Allen Clayton
Sue Allen Clayton has more than 20 years experience as an author, speaker, SEO writer, and content creator. She currently runs an online education and support community — called the Serene Solopreneur — for solo business owners. Sue has built several websites and been a WordPress user since 2010.
Beth Soderberg
Beth Soderberg is an independent developer and digital communications strategist based out of Alexandria, Virginia. She focuses on building thoughtfully architected websites that enable her clients to optimize their online presence while being empowered in managing their content. She is obsessive about clean code, solid design execution, and implementation of cutting-edge front end technologies. In her spare time Beth is a co-organizer of WordCamp DC and the WordPress DC Meetup, has contributed to the WordPress Training Team, and was a founding organizer of the annual DCFemTech Hack for Good in Washington, DC.
Pam Aungst
Pam is the owner of Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth™ Search and Analytics. Both specialize in SEO, PPC, and Analytics. She is a passionate advocate of WordPress and regularly gives talks at WordCamps around the country about SEO, Google Analytics, and business topics.
Kelly Vanek
Kelly Cassidy Vanek, President & Creative Director: Cassidy Communications, Inc.
I have been working in the creative communications and marketing industry for more than thirty years. Along the way, I have earned more than twenty design awards and have enjoyed opportunities to use my skills locally, nationally and globally. Highlights include: Undertaking design, IA, UX for more than forty websites; spearheading a worldwide branding initiative for World Team; providing creative direction to Monroe County Transit Authority; executing creative direction and design for The Pennsylvania Lawyer magazine; serving as editor of Tucker Topics magazine. I hold a BS degree in Communication from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and will complete a MS degree in Graphic Information Technology in the Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University in December 2019.
On a personal note, I am an avid bicycle enthusiast, breast cancer previvor, and a 2-time (soon to be 3-time) grandmother. I have enjoyed biking and outdoor adventures in the US as well as England, Italy, Ireland, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, and Norway.
Enjoy the ride!
Kevin Cristiano
Kevin came to WordPress in 2006 by chance and got hooked because of its ability to give site owners the capacity to not only control their content, but also to manage their sites themselves. You can find him at tadpole.cc working with non-profits.
Kevin is on the WordPress Global Community Team as a “super deputy” and specializes in Sponsors, Finance, Trademarks, and the GPL.
Tim McKenna
Since 2006, I have been helping people and organizations create meaningful customer experiences through strategy, design, and technology. Currently, I serve as the Director of User Experience at NIC’s PA Interactive.
I am a designer, technologist, and business strategist based in historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I have worked with Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, and emerging startups to create meaningful products and services. My focus has always been to improve quality through design thinking. I enjoy looking at how organizations operate and streamlining them to create value for their customers.
I am a member of IxDA and a past president of AIGA Central PA as well as a member of InVision’s Design Leadership Forum. I also teach Web Design at York College of Pennsylvania. I frequently speak at conferences and corporate events and I am open to opportunities to speak on Human Centered Design, Leadership, Technology Ethics, and Professional Development.
Chip Edwards
Chip is a partner at CreateMyVoice.com, and is dedicated to helping content producers engage their audience in a Voice First, Smart Speaker world. Chip has created voice apps for well-known bloggers and podcasters including Seth Godin, BiggerPockets, History Unplugged, and The Blind Blogger. Chip is a teacher, speaker, designer, and technologist who is passionate about connecting WordPress content to the new Voice Technology platforms.
David Dashifen Kees
By day, David Dashifen Kees is a mild-mannered programmer living in Virginia working for the Web Services unit within Georgetown University’s Information Services department. By night … they’re pretty much the same thing except asleep. Programming since the sixth grade, Dash has been writing web applications in academia since 1998 and evangelizing WordPress since 2010. When not coding, they enjoy comics, movies, games, fantasy novels, and walking their dog, Jill. They program with tabs, use two spaces after a period, and you can pry the Oxford comma from their cold, dead hands.
Pronouns: they/them 😁
Jonathan Ober
My name is Jonathan Ober. I am a husband, father, video game enthusiast, nerd, super hero fan, and more. In my daytime, I work as a website designer/developer for Creative Coding Group. I spend my days building websites from sketches and Photoshop files into fully functioning WordPress websites using PHP, HTML, and CSS. Each day I work hard to bring my client’s vision to life on the Internet so that other people can learn about their business and their products or services.
Eric Karkovack
A freelance web designer with over 20 years of experience, Eric Karkovack focuses on custom WordPress solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Among his favorite projects are building custom themes and customizing the WP Dashboard.
He also writes for a number of notable online publications, including Speckyboy Web Design Magazine, 1stWebDesigner and Envato Tuts+. Topics include WordPress (obviously!), freelancing, design trends and lots of opinion pieces. In addition, Eric occasionally contributes to the official blog of Advanced Custom Fields.
Eric calls Carlisle, PA home, where he cheers on his beloved New Orleans Saints from afar.
Sal Ferrarello
Open Source veteran, Sal Ferrarello, has a list of accomplishments to rival any of the who’s who in WordPress including contributing repeatedly to WordPress Core, Genesis, and authoring the Bootstrap Genesis Theme. If you have time, check out his GitHub account at github.com/salcode.
Along with his volunteer work in the WordPress Community, Sal has spoken on a wide variety of topics including Gutenberg, introducing people to post meta, getting developers started with transients, as well as encouraging developers to blog.
When Sal isn’t wowing you with his magic or calculus skills, he can be found teaching web development teams the tools to improve their workflows. He also enjoys spending time with his family.
Say hi to Sal on Twitter at @salcode and check out his site salferrarello.com.