Twitter: @joesimpsonjr
Hometown: Castaic, California, USA
After a life-threatening heart event in 2017, Joe A Simpson Jr’s paradigm shifted. Now he prioritizes doing only the things he loves. WordPress is one of those things. While on leave, he attended his first Meetup volunteering for WordCamp Los Angeles, beginning a whirlwind of giving back to the WordPress community.
When he saw no WordCamp speakers that looked like him, Joe grabbed a mic and took to the stage. Tired of late-night commutes around the Southland to WordPress, he started two local Meetups that culminated in Lead Organizing the region’s first WordCamps in Santa Clarita (’19, ’20, and ’21), welcoming new voices worldwide.
He spent the early part of his career as a designer in corporate identity groups with Fortune 500 companies (Unisys Corporation and Chrysler Corporation) during merger rebranding. Joe currently works at Metro Los Angeles managing their WordPress network of websites.