Organizers

David Needham is a Developer Advocate at Pantheon where he focuses on developer education and training. David serves on the board of directors of Enjoy Creativity. David enjoys blogging about productivity at davidneedham.me and sharing his experience by speaking at conferences (and occasionally helping to organize them). David is based out of Champaign IL, enjoys biking with his wife and kids, and playing board games.
Champaign, IL | @davidneedham | davidneedham.me

Alex Vasquez is the co-founder and principal at DigiSavvy, a boutique digital marketing and WordPress Development shop based in Los Angeles. Vasquez leads the WordPress Pasadena meetup and has been a previous organizer of WordCamp Los Angeles. Some people say Alex has nice hair and they’re totally right. Alex is a fan of tacos, soup dumplings, and running in new cities. If you like to eat and run tweet him at @alexjvasquez.
Los Angeles, CA | @alexjvasquez | digisavvy.com

Aaron is the WordPress Security Team lead, has been a regular contributor to WordPress for more than ten years, and is currently funded by GoDaddy to work full time on the WordPress open source project. He’s been called both a coffee snob and a beer snob, but considers both to be compliments.
Wewoka, OK | @aaroncampbell | AaronDCampbell.com

Christina Blust is a designer & developer for Blustery Day Design with a passion for well-organized data and the magic that can happen when color and typography meet content strategy. She loves taking what feels messy and complicated and corralling it with simple, functional, creative & beautiful solutions that champion empathy and authenticity. An active supporter of open knowledge, creating things and giving back, Christina may be found writing Wikipedia articles for underrepresented groups, playing the piano with her baby on her lap, or happily knitting a pile of yarn into a sock. She is also a singer-songwriter and recording artist who has performed officially at SXSW (three times) and who boldly decided to play the accordion despite her deep lack of arm strength.
Nashville, TN | @christinablust | blusterydaydesign.com

Cami lives, works, parents, and plays in the rainy city of Portland, Oregon. She’s had a love of WordCamps and WordPress since she stumbled upon the first WordCamp Portland where she became a reluctant and then excited volunteer. She works at Automattic as a community organizer for the WordPress open source project, working in the WordCamp community.
Portland, Oregon | @camikaos | camikaos.com

Kat is a Colombian digital designer living in Subachoque, a small town near Bogotá, where in partnership with her Toronto based cousin, she runs her design studio “Saraz”, working for worldwide clients.

She has been on the web and digital contents industry for more than 10 years, helping companies and independent entrepreneurs to build their presence on the internet; with WordPress as her best allied.

As she acknowledges, Kat couldn’t live or work, without getting deeply involved in the creative aspects of making designs, plans, implementations, research and consulting.

She is passionate about traveling, good eating, beer and wine tasting, music and sharing life with her family of 3 cats, her husband, and her 3 years old son.
Subachoque, Cundinamarca, Colombia | @lowkyta | saraz.design

Josh is a Project Manager at Old Hickory Credit Union in Nashville, TN. He stumbled into WordPress when a friend asked for help with their website. After attending his first WordCamp in 2016, he fell in love with the community. When not putting out fires at work, Josh enjoys spending time with his son, cooking, and *trying* to play guitar.
Nashville, TN | @joshiemac25

Chris is a senior developer for UF Health at the University of Florida who has been working on WordPress since 2008. Over the years he built one of the largest security plugins on WordPress.org as well as numerous other plugins, themes and solutions for sites large and small. When not coding Chris loves to teach and has presented at numerous WordCamps and other conferences as well as taught computer security for St. Edward’s University and other University courses ranging from computers to aviation.
Sarasota, FL | @ChrisWiegman | chriswiegman.com

Eric Hoanshelt works at WP Engine as an Operations Engineer and has been part of the WordPress community for over 12 years. In his spare time, he likes to brew beers, woodwork, and chill with his wife Julia and corgi Benson.
Nashville, TN | @wp_eho | erichoanshelt.com

Laura started her first WordPress site back in March 2006. Since then, she’s created/written for over twenty WordPress sites mostly in the areas of education and entertainment. 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.
Philadelphia, PA | @NewYorkerLaura | Hypable.com

Alx works on Payments with Automattic and plans WordCamps between spending time with his awesome kids and amazing wife.
Philadelphia, PA | @alxblock | alx.blog

Jason leads a team in building custom WordPress solutions for businesses of all sizes as the Director of Development at Red8 Interactive. He attempts to give back to the WordPress community with themes, plugins, and sharing what he learns at meetups and on his blog.
St. Louis, MO | @jason_yingling | jasonyingling.me

Brett is an Enterprise Happiness Engineer for Automattic on the VIP team. He’s been involved with WPNashville and Nashville WordCamps since 2013. When he’s not typing away on a keyboard, you can find him hanging out with his wife, daughter, and 2 dogs.
Hendersonville, TN | @bshumaker | brettshumaker.com

A leader in the Atlanta WordPress community, Kathy has been making websites and supporting WordPress people for as long as we’ve known her. She’s a long-standing organizer of WordCamp Atlanta (2010-2019) and WordCamp US 2017/2018, a WordPress trainer, the organizer of Marietta WordPress Meetup since 2011, and so, so much more.
Atlanta, GA | @kdrewien | AtlantaWPcoach.com

Jen is a Senior Web Specialist for a St. Louis-based healthcare company. There, she provides support and instruction on web accessibility to marketing teams based in 25 states. In her free time, Jen is an organizer for WordCamp St. Louis, WordCamp US, and the St. Louis WordPress Community. She also enjoys reading, graphic design, and spending time with her rescue dog, Loki.
St. Louis, MO | @JenSwish | jswish.com

Since 1998 Birgit Pauli-Haack has worked with nonprofits and small businesses as a web developer, a technology strategist, a trainer and community organizer. She founded Pauli Systems, LC in 2002, now a team of six. It is a 100% distributed company. Since 2010, the team of designers, developers, copy writers and project managers has used WordPress to build new nonprofit sites and business applications.

In her spare time, Birgit serves as a deputy with the WordPress Global Community team, as a WordPress Meetup organizer and a Tech4Good organizer. Birgit is a native German. When not in front of a computer, she runs, plays tennis, or hangs out with friends. She and her husband of 25 years love to travel and visit city art museums.
Naples, FL | @bph | paulisystems.net

I began building Websites in 1998. Email lists like Chicago WebWomen and Philly WebWomen were where I met my teachers, mentors, employers, and friends.

After attending WordCamp NYC in ’09 I was in love with WordPress and its people. Since then WordCamps have not only been a source of education, they have been a place to meet people from all over the world and make connections long valued.

In my spare time also co-organize our local WordPress Meetup and WordCamp, serve as a chapter leader for Girl Develop It Lehigh Valley, and teach Sunday School to the sweetest bunch of 3’s & 4’s you have ever seen!
Bethlehem, PA | @MrsCRW | pixelpaper.net

Andrea leads and hires for a large global support team of Enterprise Happiness Engineers for WordPress.com VIP. She is a fixer, traveler, single mom, math geek, semi-professional musician, coffee lover, aspiring polyglot, and compulsive volunteer-er.
Bloomington, IN | @andrealee_b | bishop.blog

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 to manage their sites themselves.
Philadelphia, PA | @kcristiano | tadpole.cc

From Auburn, CA to Arcata, CA then Portland, OR to Nashville, TN. I’m big on community and big on WordPress so I’m pretty excited to be doing both at the same time! Part time adventurer and hunter of Illithid, patron of the libraries of Xandrios and expert goblin smasher. Master of the Federation of Sol and seeker of the Talisman which grant passage to the Crown of Command. Lest I role a 4, I’ll see you at WCUS17!
Nashville, Tennessee | @vc27 | vc27.com

Teaching and mentorship come naturally to dog-lover and Developer Outreach Manager at Pantheon, Tessa Kriesel. She wears many hats in her life — all with sass and finesse — including instructor for Girl Develop It, lead organizer for WordCamp Minneapolis, and founder of Outspoken Women and Coders of TMRW.

Tessa has spoken on many topics including helping beginners with workflow, mentorship, configuration management, and shedding light on continuous integration and deployment. She has also been a panelist on a wide range of topics at Conferences and Meetups.

When Tessa isn’t working on her development chops or mentoring junior developers, she is using her extroverted super hero skills to make people feel welcome and included at whatever event she attends.
Pequot Lakes, MN | @tessak22 | tessakriesel.com

Dustin Meza is the Senior Director of Customer Experience Operations at WP Engine and lives in Nashville. He has spoken at over 20 WordCamps and loves being involved in the community, which is why he helped bring WordCamp US to Nashville!
Nashville, TN | @dustinmeza | wpengine.com/blog

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.
Phoenix, AZ | @raqueLandefeld | raquelandefeld.com

*Loves doing cartwheels

Michele is a WordPress Technical Specialist at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency and runs her own WordPress shop at 13Core. When not working her jobs, Michele is an organizer for WordCamp St Louis, WordCamp US 2018, and the Lead Organizer of the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup. When not logged in to her computer, she loves traveling with her family, enjoys reading, taking pictures, and a lover of fine food and better drinks.
Carbondale, IL | @Michele_Butcher | cantspeakgeek.com

In 2011, Hajj Flemings was one of eight entrepreneurs selected for the CNN’s Black in America 4: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley documentary with Soledad O’Brien.

During the filming of that documentary, he came to understand the real meaning of the term ‘meritocracy’ and recognized that lack of access in the technology space was creating a permanent underclass in communities of color. That experience literally changed the course of his life.

Hajj is founder of Brand Camp University, an educational platform that is preparing people for the future of work.  In 2017 he launched Rebrand Cities a global civic design partnership with WordPress with the audacious goal to get 10,000 businesses online and eradicate the digital divide.

He has worked with clients including Walt Disney, Pitney Bowes, Pfizer, the Detroit Lions, and the U.S. Department of Defense, been an invited speaker at Iowa State University, University of Michigan—Ross School of Business, Davidson College, University of Detroit, and others, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Mashable and CNN Tech Money on the subjects of startups, digital technology and branding.
Birmingham, MI | @HajjFlemings | rebrand.city