In 2008 while looking for an alternative to phpBB that had hierarchical categories, JJJ found BuddyPress and bbPress, and with them WordPress. As is said, the rest is history.
A forward-thinking problem solver, JJJ is an Open Source advocate, speaker, and educator with over 10 years experience as a WordPress contributor. His talents and ideas have allowed him to fill roles at both 10up and Automattic as well as running his own business. Humble about his successes and failures, he uses his experiences to move WordPress, and the community that uses it, toward something better.
His commitment to community doesn’t stop at WordPress. In 2017, he saw a need in his village of East Troy, WI and stepped forward to take an active role in local government.
When not volunteering to improve WordPress and his local community or working on his own side projects, JJJ can currently be found working for Sandhills Development on the newest versions of Sugar Calendar and Easy Digital Downloads.
Sara Dunn is enthusiastic about marketing, WordPress, messaging, and search engine optimization. Inspired by the love of these, she built 11Web, a digital marketing agency in Battle Creek, MI, where as founder and project lead she has worked with more than 125 clients on website design and marketing projects. She also has a talent for identifying pain points and creating a solution, demonstrated by the inexpensive maintenance package she implemented for her current clients and the 2017 launch of a niche service offering SEO specifically to the wedding industry.
When she’s not solving other people’s problems, vlogging, learning, or teaching, she enjoys traveling with her husband or spending time at home spoiling her French Bulldog.
Kyle has the cutest daughter in the whole world. Seriously, I challenge you to find a more adorable baby dressed in WordPress gear. When he’s not distracted playing with this amazing child, he finds time to record podcasts, organize WordCamps, and code for Easy Digital Downloads.
A dynamic storyteller, enthusiastic educator, and lover of cigars, Chris Lema is known for many things. He is a coach, speaker, and writer focusing on business and WordPress. His work has led him to learn much about building membership sites and eCommerce solutions, much of which he shares on his website. He has a strong understanding of what makes a good leader and a talent for building software teams that do awesome work, most recently at Liquid Web.
Mike Hale, co-organizer of the WordPress Napierville Meetup, has been helping his clients grow their businesses for almost 20 years. In 2010, he moved into WordPress, building custom plugins and sites on the Genesis Framework. He now uses his passion for technology, as well as his experience with business ranging in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies, to efficiently and effectively assist his clients at his digital marketing agency, Stompgear.
One of our hometown speakers and full-time blogger, Peter is a consistent source of quality content information at our wordcamps. He is dedicated to helping beginners populate their WordPress sites with effective content, the lifeblood of any site. With a dozen sites for his business and writing, he is not only sold on WordPress, but demonstrates the power of intentional, well-written words.
Frederick is a regular supporter of our local meetup and the owner of One Black Crayon, a front-end web development shop. His shop is able to help with the project whether it involves WordPress or other CMSs. With a dedication to putting the client’s needs first, One Black Crayon is able to build something new, work with an existing team, or help maintain a current site. By helping clients get the results they need for their businesses, he has been turning clients into friends for over nine years.
Sophia originally learned WordPress to be able to attend WordCamp Chicago in 2014. At the time she never considered that she’d actually put it to use. Three years later when she saw a need in her community of friends, she was able to use her skills and the friends she’d made in the community to help her solve the problem.
When she’s not being a reluctant developer, she is an artist and musician who uses the flexibility of being home schooled to indulge her love of spoken languages.
From Columbus, Ohio, Steve is a regular speaker at WordCamp Grand Rapids and an enthusiastic community member who is currently a Senior Software Engineer at Liquid Web. He has numerous plugins in the WordPress.org repository and, as a specialist in WordPress and application development, has the opportunity to work with organizations like Microsoft, TED, and Experience Columbus, to name just a few.
In his off time, he enjoys music, hiking, and writing about writing software on his blog.
A former school teacher turned podcast strategist, producer and host, Jeff has found his niche producing podcasts for other businesses. He and his team at Come Alive Creative embrace the technical and human aspects of producing quality podcasts to assist their clients in building, engaging, and nurturing their audiences through ongoing podcast series. Aside from client work, he also serves as the lead instructor at Come Alive Academy.
Beyond podcasting and education, he spends his time with his family, playing board games, and learning something new everyday.
As a high school student, Tim began building websites for local business in 1996 and has freelanced at it, off and on, ever since. From there he has applied his skills to web and application development throughout ministry, education, telecommunications, and manufacturing. Currently, he can be found working for Sprint as an Applications Developer for their primary ticketing application, developing on both the front and back end.
Tim is also a runner who is currently training for a marathon to raise money for clean water in Africa through Hope Water International.
Yankees fan and dedicated educator, Joe Casabona has a full time goal of helping people. To accomplish this, he uses his skills as a front end developer, instructor, and course creator to teach people how to use WordPress, coach them on their WordPress business, and improve their communication and customer support. Another tool in his arsenal is How I Built It, his weekly podcast that highlights the stories and processes of how various product developers and business owners have brought their ideas to life.
With over 18 years of web development experience, Aaron has worked with a wide range of clients, everything from small, local business to Google, Yahoo, Disney, and Harvard. As of now, he is funded by GoDaddy to work on the WordPress open source project full time and is currently the WordPress Security lead.
Away from the computer, his interests vary as much as the clients he’s worked for. Occasionally called both a coffee snob and beer snob, he wears the mantles proudly. You can also find him spending time with his wife and son, enjoying sci-fi/fantasy books, or riding his motorcycle.
Alonso is making his first appearance at WCGR, having traveled all the way from Albuquerque, NM. He is fully immersed in WordPress and as the CEO of 11 Online, a full service digital agency, he and his team build, fix, and maintain websites for their clients.
WordPress aside, he is a lover of cinema and has an active family life which includes his wife, daughter, twin toddler boys, and their neurotic dog, Rafa.
Benjamin, a full stack Web Developer since 2012, is tackling many firsts this year both as a new hire at Flywheel as a Happiness Engineer and making the long cross-country trip from Portland, Oregon to speak at WordCamp Grand Rapids. Aside from that, he can often be found working on both the front and back end of websites as well as handling content migration, DevOps, and the complexities of infrastructure.
A front end web developer, writer, and analyst with experience working for marketing agencies in the Metro Detroit area, RJ has 5 years experience with WordPress both as a user and developer. He’s thorough and smart and is currently applying these skills to his job at American Expedition Vehicles as well as helping out Girl Develop It Detroit, a nonprofit organization that exists to provide affordable and judgment-free opportunities for women interested in learning web and software development, as an instructor and teaching assistant.
A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Andrew is a tenured professor of archeology at Marshall College. He successfully protected the Ark of the Covenant, saved innocent lives, and found the Holy Grail! …Oh wait, that’s Indiana Jones. Andrew Norcross writes code, builds fancy things for the interweb, and drinks an absurd amount of coffee. He currently works at Liquid Web and lives in Florida with his two adorable rescue dogs.
Michelle used her education in Visual Communication, with minors in Psychology and Sociology, to build her business as an independent graphic designer and front-end developer based out of Minneapolis. Growing these skills, she has been able to move into front-end development and user experience design where she focuses on solving tangible problems and achieving real, people-driven goals through a strategy-based approach to design.
Fortunately for us, she is not all work and no play. Passionately active in the open source community, she can frequently be found speaking, volunteering, and organizing various events and workshops around the country.
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