Anita Carter
I am a web developer with emphasis on WordPress and the Genesis Framework. I also provide theme support for theme developers. I have been self-employed for nine years. I hope to freelance from the road one day living the van life.
Chris Ford
Chris Ford has been managing WordPress projects for over a decade. For most of that time she was managing her own projects as an independent contractor focusing on design, branding and UX. A year and a half ago she traded that in for a position as a remote Project Manager at Reaktiv Studios, a WordPress VIP partner.
Cindy Bidar
Cindy Bidar’s online career has spanned multiple specialities, including content and copywriting, marketing and operations management, coaching, and consulting. She’s had the privilege of working with some of today’s most profitable online businesses, and has helped train 7-figure marketing teams and overseen the set up and management of hundreds of marketing and sales funnels. Through her training programs and one-to-one consulting, she helps her clients scale their businesses by creating automated systems that improve conversion rates, increase sales, and add more profit to the bottom line.
Daniel Proczko
Marketing is not a magic art – its supposed to make money. Advertising, social media, email, and the time you spend on them should be adding value to your bottom line in a predictable & measurable way.
For over 15 years, I’ve experienced small and mid-sized businesses struggle (even close up shop) because they lacked the tools to help them generate more business.
In other words, they didn’t understand their customers and how to attract them.
Jeff Large
Jeff Large is a podcast strategist, producer, and host. He leads his team at Come Alive Creative in producing podcasts for businesses and brands. His favorite things include family, board games, and learning something new every day.
His website is comealivecreative.com
Jeries Eadeh
I am the son of a shopkeeper! In my twenties, I took ownership of a family business. I turned around our failing business into a success within two years. I’ve used the lessons I picked up along the way advance in a highly specialized field like eCommerce, Cloud Computing, and Data Center Infrastructure Management.
Today, I provide full cycle business development expertise to B2C and B2B retail and technology companies. I help executives realize their goals with all Cloud Computing and Infrastructure Management aspects of the business. Including performance, security, sales, software development and code deployment-related requirements. My roles have included both channel and direct sales, sales training, sales team development, and management with a special emphasis on identifying and creating the messaging that drives new customer and partner participation for Nexcess.
Joe A Simpson Jr
Joe A. Simpson, Jr. is a Front-End Web Developer and Graphic Designer specializing in WordPress solutions. During sun-soaked days he works at a top-five transit agency, fighting the good fight to ease gridlock around Los Angeles County. When their lead developer and CSS specialist both left to pursue other opportunities, Joe inherited a Headway-themed design (sans child theme) and the rest is history. Over ten years later, he manages a WordPress blog network consisting of dozen project-specific or transit news sites and growing.
Faced with a life-altering heart event in 2017, he pivoted on all things WordPress, leveraging his creative past, teaching tech, and truly giving back by sharing a motivating story of re-igniting your dreams. He actively contributes the WordPress Community, founding the WordPress Santa Clarita Valley Meetup, speaking or volunteering at WordCamps. As the lead organizer his brainchild, WordCamp Santa Clarita, was the first WordCamp north of Los Angeles and south of San Francisco in over five years.
Kelly McCausey
A single mom with one young son, I made graphics and websites for other home based business owners. I worked hard and charged too little for my time.
Thankfully, I learned quickly there are smarter ways to build an income online. For many years now, I no longer trade hours for dollars. I blog, podcast, design, partner, create information products, run membership programs, hold live retreats and coach others to get where they want to be in an online business.
Kim Smith
I’m a third-generation entrepreneur; it’s in my blood. I’ve always known that I wanted to work for myself, but the “what” didn’t become clear until sometime in the mid-90s…mainly because the technology hadn’t been invented yet! As the internet, the world wide web, and websites started becoming a part of our world, I found my “what”. I knew this was what I was meant to do. I saw this as an amazing way to level the playing field for small businesses against their larger competition…and it could be done at an affordable price! My mission was set and I moved forward.
I took on my first web design client in January of 2000 and have been growing in skill, size, and services ever since. My clients know that I’m not a flaky web designer who builds a site and they can never reach again for updates or maintenance; I actually clean up messes those guys leave behind! Some of my clients have been with me a dozen years or more and they can trust that I’m available by phone, email, text, or Facebook Messenger – AND, they never have to press “1” for English! I talk to them in terms that they can understand and often draw pictures to illustrate difficult concepts. I teach them as much as they want to learn about updating their websites, including blogging – and most importantly, I teach them how to market their company. After all, who knows their company better than the owner? I enable them with free and low-cost tools that are easy to use that help them to reach their target market without breaking the bank — and I teach them how to effectively USE those tools!
Mary Baum
Mary Baum is the founder and principal of RacquetPress, which builds Genesis child themes and more for the tennis industry.
A veteran creative and degreed designer, Mary speaks on WP design and development, helps organize WordCamp St. Louis (and WordCamp US in St. Louis in 2019 and 2020!) and has started hanging out with the Core release team to edit blog posts and About pages.
She’s partial to rare steaks, hard serves and high-contrast serifs; also, homemade hot fudge, high backhand volleys, Genesis hooks and Joshua trees.
Michele Butcher-Jones
Michele is a WordPress Technical Specialist at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency and runs her own WordPress shop at 13Core. When not working her jobs, Michele is an organizer for WordCamp St Louis, WordCamp US 2018, and the Lead Organizer of the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup. When not logged in to her computer, she loves traveling with her family, enjoys reading, taking pictures, and a lover of fine food and better drinks.
Mike Hale
Mike Hale is the Founder of Stompgear Digital Marketing, a freelance WordPress developer, and co-organizer of the WordPress Naperville Meetup. He has helped clients grow their businesses online for almost 20 years and started working with WordPress in 2010 building custom plugins and sites built on the Genesis Framework. Mike enjoys living the Keto life, smoking fine cigars, and making fancy cocktails.
Mitchell Dawkins
Mitchell Dawkins an athlete turned Software Engineer, currently focused more in backend development. In his free time, he likes to stay active and find ways to bring tech into any and every environment.
Steve Grunwell
Steve Grunwell is a Senior Software Engineer at Liquid Web, working primarily on the Managed WordPress and WooCommerce platforms. Specializing in WordPress and web application development, he has a passion for teaching and contributing back to the development community through speaking, blogging, and open-source work.
When he’s not writing tests or finding new ways to automate the world around him, Steve is off spending time with his family, enjoying a fine cup of coffee, playing guitar, or otherwise getting away from the keyboard.
Tim Nolte
I did my first website for a local business in 1996 while I was a high school student. I’ve done freelance work on the site on-and-off since then. I’ve done web & application development in ministry, education, telecommunications, and manufacturing. I currently work at Sprint as an Applications Developer including both backend and frontend development for the primary ticketing application. I’m passionate about WordPress development and the community and love being a part of this amazing dynamic group!
Topher DeRosia
Topher is a husband and father from Grand Rapids MI. He’s been a web developer since 1995 and a WordPress developer since 2010. Random fact: Topher created the official International Space Station Windows95 Desktop Theme.
His website is topher1kenobe.com