Meet your 2017 WordCamp Baltimore Speakers! 🙂
Mike Morucci
Math always came easy to me, so I lived a nice, comfortable life as an IT nerd and media product manager. Then midlife struck and something didn’t add up. Sure, numbers are cool, but creativity is unquantifiable. Instead of hitting the bars, I hit my keyboard: one page at a time. I’ve written jokes, blog posts, freelance articles, sketches, shorts, television scripts and a screenplay. I’ve also launched SmashCut Designs, a website design service for small businesses and creatives, with the help of my friend and fellow writer, Chris Mueller. When I’m not playing my guitar or building spreadsheets, I love to write jokes on Twitter where you can find me as @GCGeek.
Russell Heimlich
Russell Heimlich has been wrangling the interwebz since the dawn of the century. By day he is the lead developer at Spirited Media, a local news operation for the next generation. By night he is a small human co-wrangler of two daughters with the help from his partner in crime, Kristina. True to his name, he is capable life saving choking maneuvers for the greater human good. Milkshakes make him smile.
Davis Shaver
Worn many hats in the media industry, now serving as a senior engineer for Alley Interactive
Tessa Kriesel
Agency and Community Engineer at Pantheon and Founder of Coders of TMRW, Tessa has been a web developer for over 10 years. She enjoys front-end development but also loves to build sites from start to finish. She started in Joomla back when it was 1.0.x and worked her way into WordPress and Drupal about 7 years ago. She enjoys teaching others to code as well as speaking at conferences and youth events. Tessa is a northern Minnesota native, but now lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and four children – three boys and a baby girl. She loves dogs and enjoys helping local organizations rescue dogs in her free time.
Jimmy Smutek
I’m a web developer from Baltimore Maryland. I work at Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health as Lead Web Developer, and previously was Lead Web Developer at Ainsley Agency. Prior to joining the Ainsley team, I ran a freelance web development business where I helped small businesses create engaging and effective websites. Before beginning my career in web development, I also worked as a graphic artist for ten years. I studied Computer Graphics & Visual Communication at CCBC and Corporate Communication at the University of Baltimore. I like modular synthesizers, drum machines, skateboards, and learning new stuff.
Jessica Watson
Jessica Watson is the President & Creative Director of Points North Design Studio , a small studio with big design. Her team works on dynamic brands, interactive websites, and strategic marketing campaigns to keep clients pointed north. Watson has been featured in CityBizList, BBJ, and Baltimore Magazine. She also works on community initiatives in Baltimore, including the Have A Nice Day Project . When she’s not designing, you’ll find her planning her next travel adventure, in a kayak, or in search for the world’s best taco.
Steve Carr
My work experience has been in product development. My professional interest is in finding meaningful ways to help people through the talents I’ve been able to develop throughout my career. I came to WordPress through a recent startup I co-founded, WeHelpYouDo.com. In WordPress, I found a welcoming community that shared my interest in using technology for the greater good. When not working (a relatively new concept for me), I’m learning how to “take time to smell the roses.”
Hope Tillman
Career as library director at Babson College in Massachusetts. In the early days of the Internet got an NSF grant to bring Babson on to the Internet. Created their first gopher and web site in the early 1990’s and was involved in the library community to help librarians learn to use the Internet and see the benefits of the web. Have created lots of websites over the years. Have used other platforms, such as Drupal, but in more recent years have found WordPress a successful, popular platform. Currently, I am the webmaster for four other groups—a non-profit genealogical society, an online literary review, a local club, and the CCI community website. Joined the Website Committee shortly after arriving at the community in Fall 2015. Because of my background, I was able to take on the backend tasks that had been done by our original web developer and so we were able to do updates and make changes rather than sending an email and waiting for the developer to find time for us. The site was tightly locked down but I was able to work with the developer and gain trust.
Lisa Petrovich Smith
Lisa Petrovich Smith is a designer and creative strategist with over 20 years of experience in information systems. Lisa loves working with new and growing businesses to develop their strategic vision and a compelling visual identity and website to match. Lisa founded LPS Web and Design, LLC to help creative entrepreneurs, small businesses and nonprofits connect with their ideal customers. Our small firm specializes in WordPress websites and digital marketing strategy. Lisa spent over 10 years as a systems consultant and project manager with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She is an active networker, both in-person and online (Twitter is her favorite social network) and enjoys connecting people and ideas.
Aaron Campbell
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 has over seventeen years of web development experience and worked with clients ranging from small local businesses to Google, Yahoo, Disney, and Harvard. He’s been called both a coffee snob and a beer snob, but considers both to be compliments. When not buried in code, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, riding his motorcycle, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books.
Tim Sisson
Tim loves WordPress and enjoys leveraging it to meet businesses needs. I lead the Customer Community Team at BoldGrid. I’m passionate about SEO, internet marketing, and e-commerce. When I’m not tinkering with WordPress I spend my time on adventures with my awesome wife Lisa, three daughters Autumn, Stella, & Petra.
Dwayne McDaniel
I have been working in tech and open source sales since 2005. I knew as soon as I started working with Java middleware developers I never wanted to work outside of open source ever again. I first started building in Drupal and WordPress when I needed to build projects for the San Francisco Improv scene. I fell in the love the community of developers and then found my position at Pantheon at the end of 2013. As a Community and Agency Success Manager I have had the privilege of presenting at Stanford DrupalCamp, Drupal Northern Lights (Iceland), WordCamp Europe and many other conferences. Outside of tech I love producing and performing improv theater. I also love comic books and karaoke!!! Reach out at https://mcdwayne.com or on twitter @mcdwayne
Eve Land
I’m an Electrical Engineer with a background in embedded hardware and software, primarily in the defense industry. I’ve done development, technical support, and product management. I began working with WordPress in 2008. In 2012 I transitioned into the field of IT. I’ve done web design, hosting support, server administration and currently, I work at Sucuri.
David Zweigel
Started as a pioneer in user-based technology is the 1980s, consulting on desktop publishing. After eight years in the commercial-side of MultiMedia industry, I began my Public Sector career at working at the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in 1991. Over the last 26 years I have helped innovated the use of modern digital publishing, content management, social media, and other innovations to the forefront of the U.S.’s public diplomacy efforts around the world. Since 2011, I have been working in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of eDiplomacy. Up until then, I was an avid user of Joomla. However, the eDiplomacy was already using WordPress…so it was back to school. I started reading and experimenting with WordPress. Because of the easy of use, multitude of tools, and sharing community, I rapidly became a WordPress advocate and user-focussed in-house guru. I have worked on a major Knowledge Management effort which leverages WordPress, BuddyPress, and BBPress. And now current lead for MicroLearning tool development at the Foreign Service Institute – School of Applied Information Technology. My role continues to change as I have become the go-to-guy for everything WordPress, serving as training, educator, customer requirements expert and R & D test pilot.
Paul Taubman II
Paul is an international Speaker, Presenter, and Trainer focusing on website strategy and marketing online. Working full time as an online business owner, Paul speaks internationally and teaches businesses and individuals how to make more money with their websites.
Drew Poland
Drew Poland is a freelance WordPress developer in the Baltimore area specializing in custom theme design & development. He is also a regular WordCamp speaker.
Neha Goyal
Web Developer at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington DC, Neha has been building websites for over a decade. She is a full stack developer, where she specializes in WordPress development. She started developing in Drupal nine years ago and has been building custom WordPress websites for over seven years. In her other life, Neha was a professional wedding planner and blogged about South Asian weddings. Her entrepreneurial ventures have included starting a subscription box business and building an Indian American wedding portal for couples to plan their weddings and also connect with vendors. Neha is passionate about learning about different cultures and is currently obsessed with educating herself about Blockchaining. Her hobbies include bullet journaling, DIY arts & crafts and listening to hip hop music. She grew up in New Delhi, India and moved to the United States for college education. Neha is a Rochester Institute of Technology alum and lives in Northern Virginia with her husband.
Andy Stratton
Andy is a freelance WordPress developer, founding principal of WordPress agency Sizeable Interactive, and founder of WordPress maintenance and support service WP Maintainer. When he’s not busy perfecting websites, Andy is often found exercising his dog, learning about fitness and training at the gym and enjoying animals, art, film, music and philosophy.
Joshua Wold
As a designer turned Product Owner, I’ve had the privilege of working across a range of WordPress website projects over the years. Currently I’m enjoying the opportunity to help define requirements for enterprise level WordPress site. This gives me the opportunity to have regular interaction with Content Producers, as well as amazing engineering teams. I apply my design background to many of the tickets I’m working on, sketching wireframes and creating prototypes to help bring the tickets to life for our clients.
Corey Brown
Corey Brown’s expertise in designing, inventing, building, leading, founding and tweaking successful websites spans more than two decades and a host of site types, from publishing and e-commerce to social platforms and user-generated content. As a guy who has stared at a computer screen for hours on end since the 1980s (first, a VIC-20), Corey keeps his eyes from crossing by goofing off with his daughters, playing bass and piano, writing music and tinkering with an idea list that gets longer every day.
Amar Trivedi
Prior to founding AmDee in 2009, Amar worked for non-profit, government and for-profit clients as software developer and architect. Amar started working with Internet way back in 1995. Even though Amar’s formal education is in civil and environmental engineering, he has always enjoyed coming up with technology solutions for real-life business challenges. He is always focused on creating a solution that best fits the client’s needs and budget. He firmly believes that market creates the optimal solution for any size of problem. When he is not coding, catching up on industry blogs, or reading about theoretical economics, you will find him playing tennis, attending meetups and Indian classical music concerts.
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 coding 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.
Nicole Kohler
Nicole Kohler is a growth marketer at Automattic. When she’s not parked in front of her laptop, you can usually find her playing a video game, refreshing Twitter, or driving aimlessly around central Pennsylvania in search of good beer.
Erica Mays
I have been an independent design consultant since 2010. I went to school for my BFA in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art, with a concentration in Book Arts. Later, I picked up front-end web development by continuing my education in coding bootcamps and online courses. I operate out of my home studio in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. While I started out as a jack-of-all-trades, I have grown to specialize in design that is clean and consistent to deliver strong brands and websites. I love wearing multiple hats, whether it’s print designer, web developer, or game master.
Beth Soderberg
Beth Soderberg is an independent developer and digital communications strategist based out of Washington, DC. 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 volunteers as the community representative for the WordPress Training Team, is a co-organizer of WordCamp DC and the WordPress DC Meetup, and is a co-organizer of the annual DCFemTech Hack for Good in Washington, DC.
David Kees
By day, David Dashifen Kees is a mild-mannered programmer living in Alexandria, VA working remotely for the Engineering IT Shared Services unit within the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. By night… he’s pretty much the same thing. Programming since the sixth grade, Dash has been writing web applications in academia since 1998 and evangelizing WordPress at Illinois since 2010. As the primary WordPress developer for the College of Engineering and a member of the University’s “Publish @ Illinois” team running the campus-wide WordPress Network, he’s been a driving force behind WordPress adoption within the college and on campus. He programs with tabs, uses two spaces after a period, and you can pry the Oxford comma from his cold, dead hands.
Kristina Romero
I’m a website developer, mompreneur and passionate advocate for WordPress. I work with small businesses and entrepreneurs through my company KR Media & Designs to build amazing websites to grow their business. As a front-end developer in the Washington D.C area, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the Coca-Cola Company and Food Network on various WordPress projects. I’m also proud to be a WP Elevation Business Coach and partner in RockStar Empires that helps entrepreneurs learn how to take their business online.
Laura Byrne Cristiano
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.
Ethan Butler
Ethan Butler is a freelance WordPress developer and JavaScript hipster based in Durham, NC. He’s also an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism. When he’s not hacking, he loves nerding out about hip-hop, biking, and vegetarian cooking.
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/.
Evan Herman
Evan Herman is a Software Engineer at GoDaddy, based in Philadelphia, PA. At GoDaddy, he helps support and maintain the line of GoDaddy products hosted on WordPress.org. Outside of his day job, he freelances and sells a number of premium WordPress plugins. He is a WordPress Core contributor (4.0, 4.3, 4.4, 4.4.1, 4.5, and 4.7) and maintains 20+ free plugins on WordPress.org, which have amassed over half a million active installs.
Joe Howard
Joe is the Head Buff at WP Buffs, where he tries to live life to the fullest while running a 24/7 maintenance company. He lives in beautiful Mt. Pleasant, Washington, DC and loves astronomy, scrabble and a good cup of bulletproof Earl Grey!
Ann MacKay
I am a retired long-term care RN and association manager who had had a career in aging services. I have served in multiple leadership roles during my career and as a volunteer. I was inducted into the Maryland Senior Hall of Fame in 2016 for my volunteer work. I discovered WordPress in 2008 after I retired. After starting a personal blog to share travel adventures with family and friends, I became the webmaster for the branch of AAUW in Warner Robins, GA, then set up the Georgia AAUW website on WordPress. I attended WordCamp in Atlanta in 2011 and loved it. Since moving back to Maryland in 2012, I started attending the website committee at the retirement community where I live. I suggested WordPress may help the timeliness of posting information since a web developer did the posting. The developer moved the site to WordPress in the Fall of 2014. I added all the content to the new WordPress site over several months. Now I am a co-webmaster of the CCIcharlestown.org site. I attended WordCamp Baltimore the past two years.
Joseph Carter-Brown
Joseph Carter-Brown is a devsigner, with a focus toward raising awareness of design’s importance in the larger corporate, social, and economic conversation. As President of AIGA Baltimore, Joe works hard to connect designers to broader professional and educational resources in the Baltimore community. Joe is a jack of-all-trades designer who uses conceptual thinking, creativity, technical prowess, and problem solving skills in a variety of design applications. Currently, Joe is a front-end designer for Unleashed Technologies, helping medium and large-sized corporations forge their online brand. When not immersed in design work, he enjoys sports, cooking, engaging in deep (or ridiculous) discussions with whomever will listen and spending time with his family.
Aaron Brazell
Aaron is a Senior Back End developer for Modern Tribe. Previously, he worked as a Senior Web Engineer for 10up. He has over 10 years of WordPress industry experience, including assorted contributions to core. When not working on WordPress, he is hanging with his two dogs in Canton, exploring nightlife or watching soccer.