Alena Holligan
For over 15 years, Alena has built PHP applications for clients across diverse industries, including over 7 of those years using WordPress. She enjoys both the creativity of programming and the thrill of solving a puzzle. She is excited about the recent advances in PHP. Most notably, the on-going efforts to expand and encompass the AMAZING PHP community as a whole through the collaboration of various sub-groups and the use of standards, and best practices.
Alena serves as part of the leadership team for both the Portland chapter of Women Who Code and the PDX PHP users group. She is passionate about helping people overcome their own barriers to excellence in order to achieve personal confidence in their ability to learn and succeed. Most recently, this passions has collided with her programming skills at Treehouse, where she is training the next generation of PHP enthusiasts.
Alex Mansfield
Alex has worked with WordPress theme since Kubrick was the default theme. He worked with numerous WordPress agencies and theme shops over the years, but was always tinkering on his own. His love of perfecting even the smallest detail was honed through his childhood obsession with with Legos. When not making things with WordPress, he enjoys photography, traveling the world, and climbing trees.
Ariel Rule
Ariel is a Portland-based copywriter, inbound marketer and the social media manager for Duda Mobile. As a longtime blogger, Ariel’s work has appeared on top WordPress and Online Marketing blogs. When she’s not typing away on her Mac or digging through Twitter analytics, you can often find her enjoying copious amounts of coffee and spending time with her amazing hubby and boys.
Ben Martin
Security Analyst and Remediation Lead at Sucuri Inc. hailing from Victoria, BC, Canada. I help clean and protect websites and spend my work day identifying & expunging malware to help make the Internet a safer place to be. I am passionate about infosec, online security/privacy issues and helping people learn cool things.
Chris Lema
Chris Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite. He’s also a daily blogger, a public speaker, and product strategist. He helps companies leverage WordPress, and helps WordPress companies find leverage. For twenty years Chris has developed and managed high performing engineers to build software products – particularly SaaS products in a variety of B2B vertical markets. He’s also spent the last ten years coaching startups on product development & marketing strategies.
Doug Yuen
I’ve recently moved to Portland, originally from New Jersey. I’ve been designing and developing for the web for 18 years, and exclusively with WordPress for the past 7. My specialties include multisite, the Genesis framework, and site speed optimization. I co-host WPcast.fm (“The Professional WordPress Podcast”), and I’ve authored 3 plugins in the WordPress.org repository. I’ve spoken at WordCamp Boston 2011, WordCamp Connecticut 2014, and WordCamp Philly 2014.
My company, EfficientWP, specializes in a WordPress design in a day service, and secure hosting and maintenance. I’m also developing a SaaS built on WordPress, Review Ranger, for monitoring iTunes reviews.
Drew Jaynes
I started actively contributing to WordPress a shade over four years ago and it all started with a beta test. It was the first time I discovered that I could do the “try before you buy” on an upcoming release. That single act changed my life and I like to think a whole lot of lives to follow. You see, in a meta sort of way, I use WordPress to improve WordPress for millions of users every day.
Erin Olmon
Erin is a User Experience (UX) expert in Portland. She works with WordPress to provide clear customer journeys and story paths to improve their experience on a website, from the moment they touch the site through each click of the way.
Jeremy Felt
Jeremy is a senior WordPress engineer with University Communications at Washington State University, where he helps power the web on an open source, multisite platform.
He describes himself as an Open Source Student. Is a WordPress core developer. Maintainer of VVV (Varying Vagrant Vagrants). Thankful community member of all the above. And a homebrewer and enjoyer of excellent brews.
Jocelyn Mozak
I am the Founder & Owner of Mozak Design, located here in the Portland area. Born and raised on the East Coast, my education includes Cornell University, graduating with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and Stanford University, where I obtained a Master’s in Electrical Engineering.
While my education in engineering certainly refined my technical skills, I found that it’s my passion for what I do and the people that I’ve helped (and continue to help) that makes me a skilled web designer.
When I’m is not busy coding CSS or reading PHP you might find me chilling at a coffee shop, getting a pedicure or heading out for a run.
Kronda Adair
Kronda Adair is the founder of Karvel Digital, a WordPress consultancy and development business. In addition to developing websites, Kronda gives business owners the training they need to own and manage their digital presence. She is a regular speaker at WordPress meetups and Wordcamps and has been invited to speak at Ada Developer Academy, Beyond the Code, Open Source Bridge, Lesbians Who Tech Summit, and others. She has given talks on WordPress deployment processes, successful site planning, starting your own business, and more. She also writes and speaks about issues of diversity (or lack thereof) in the tech industry. She has been interviewed by sites such as Revision Path and Less Than or Equal. You can read her personal blog at kronda.com or sign up for her weekly newsletter at tinyletter.com/kronda Her latest project is a book for business owners on managing your website and other digital assets, to be released in 2015. When she’s not working, she can be found enjoying time at home with her wife and two cats, reading dead-tree books, riding one of her five bikes, or enjoying the postcard vistas of the state of Oregon.
Luria Petrucci (aka Cali Lewis)
Luria Petrucci, the video host formerly known as Cali Lewis, was a pioneer in the podcasting world and has been producing and hosting video since 2005. With 2 million social media followers, she’s worked with Samsung, Panasonic, Verizon FiOS, Monster Cable, Bausch + Lomb and more, all while creating her own content with an amazing team and vibrant community! She recently moved production from Dallas to Portland. It already feels more like home than any other city she’s lived in!
She’s the founder of Geeks Life, where you can find How To’s and Reviews on all kinds of geeky topics from technology to food to gaming and entertainment! She’s passionate about sharing her knowledge with the world and helping others to succeed faster and better! She and the Geeks Life team offer training courses for anyone who wants to better themselves and learn how create great audio and video with ease, market your podcast and make it a business!
Marc Benzakein
Marc lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife Jessica and a gaggle of kids (currently at six) ranging from three months to ten years old. His day job involves being Manager of Operations at ServerPress, LLC where they make DesktopServer which is software to make the lives of designers and developers better by increasing their local development workflow. His passion for quality of life reaches into every aspect of both his personal and professional life.
In between work hours, Marc spends his time with his family which is constantly changing in size due to the passion both he and his wife share for helping children in need, giving them a home when they have nowhere to go. He blogs semi-regularly at his site From Two to Five OverNight where he’s happy to share the life adventures of his family along with any other thoughts that he may have on a given day.
Matthew Eppelsheimer
Matthew is a WordPress core contributor and the principal of Rocket Lift, a Portland-based digital marketing agency. He started Rocket Lift to offer “gee whiz the-future-is-now” communication and information technology to organizations that make a difference. He is a seasoned management consultant with experience supporting multimillion dollar government projects, non-profit development campaigns, and private sector ventures.
Matthew has got WordCamps mixed up with vacations. He’s attended them for four years all around the world, including most recently in Vancouver, British Columbia and Sevilla, Spain. This year, he’s our volunteer coordinator, in a reprisal of his role during WordCamp Portland 2013, when he was also one of our speakers.
Matthew cares deeply about sustainable food systems and the Portland Timbers soccer club.
Sarah Pressler
I am a digital project manager & professional copy writer with a wide range of experience and know-how. After surviving corporate agency life, I co-founded CodeBrain Media with Cindy Kendricks, in the fall of 2014. Together, we are building a premium plugin (OptimaList.io) while wrangling children and a handful of enterprise level WordPress development projects. I also help the teams at ServerPress & PlainMade.com with product and project management, social media management, and community engagement. I have been building communities and working online since the mid 90’s.
Weston Ruter
I’ve been developing with WordPress for the past 10 years. I’m an active core contributor and a component maintainer for the Customizer, and I recently became a core committer. I’ve been working with the team at XWP for over the past 5 years, where I’m serving as Director of Technology, while I’m also still heavily involved in contributing to client projects. I live here in Portland with my wife and two little boys.