Announcing Our Speakers Round 5

Spearker Announcement Round 6 photos of speakers

All this week we are announcing the speakers who will be presenting at WordCamp US 2019 in St. Louis, MO.

If you haven’t already, buy your tickets or consider becoming a volunteer and getting a free ticket.

Previously announced speakers: Round OneRound Two, Round Three, Round Four

Please welcome today’s newly announced speakers.

  • Carl Alexander

    Carl is a PHP developer from Montréal, Canada. He lives and breathes advanced programming topics (and memes). He shares a lot of his passion for those topics on his website where he publishes articles on a regular basis.

    It’s his way to help you with these hard-to-learn topics. That’s also why he’s excited to speak at WordCamp US. It’s another way for him to help you.

    Besides that, he’s been a WordPress Montréal organizer since 2010. He also helps organize other WordPress events during the year. You can find him on Twitter and GitHub.

    Presentation Title: How to beat technical writer’s block

    Twitter: @twigpress

  • Helen Hou-Sandi

    Helen is a Lead Developer for WordPress and the Director of Open Source Initiatives at 10up, where she is sponsored to contribute to the WordPress open source software project and sets the direction of how the company supports the platforms it builds upon. As a lead developer, she focuses on bigger picture decisions and feature planning, along with writing and reviewing code across a variety of components and languages.

    Presentation Title: Open Source, Open Process, Open Web

    Twitter: @helenhousandi

  • Jonny Harris

    Maintainer of multisite and users in WordPress core and contributing for 6 years. But has been using WordPress since 1.5, he is a freelance developer and lover of all things WordPress.

    Presentation Title: The REST API and authentication 

    Twitter: @thespacedmonkey

  • Kori Ashton

    Kori Ashton has been listed as one of seven women who run tech startups in San Antonio, Texas, to watch. She started her first company at the age of 12 and has had an entrepreneur’s heart ever since. She built her first HTML website in 1998 and was instantly hooked on Web design. In 2012, she launched a WordPress development firm which now has 15 employees and is ranked 3rd in the city. She also hosts a weekly giveback to the WP community on her growing YouTube Channel https://YouTube.com/koriashton

    In every workshop or webinar, Kori is determined to share actionable takeaways to our diverse community. No boring workshops. No death by PowerPoint.

    Presentation Title: A Mom, a Lesbian, and an Entrepreneur Walk into a WordCamp

    Twitter: @koriashton

  • Sherry Walling

    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.

    Presentation Title: Feeling Fried? A WordPresser’s Guide to Preventing Burnout

    Twitter: @zenfounder

  • Steve Persch

    Steve is a developer with 13 years of experience building WordPress and Drupal sites. While interning at a theatre company in college, Steve overheard the artistic director say they needed a blog and an online magazine. Steve volunteered to build the sites and WordPress 2.0.4 got the job done. His path was changed and he’s been building sites since.

    Steve spent much of his career at Palantir.net, a Drupal-focused web agency. Working at Palantir, Steve built sites for a range of clients including Foreign Affairs, Marketplace, Public Radio International, and many higher education institutions. Steve was a co-maintainer of the Workbench suite of modules. You can find patches from Steve all over Drupal core and contributed modules.

    Presentation Title: The Hierarchy of Needs for High-Performing Websites

    Twitter: @stevector

You don’t want to miss out on WordCamp US 2019! There will be speakers, workshops, childcare, an incredible sponsor hall, the annual WordFest party, and more. Get your tickets to WordCamp US today!