Presenters

Adam works for the Office of Information Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA USA. In his role as a Lead Information Security Engineer, he works for Georgia Tech's Cyber Security team as a resource for web application and AWS security.

Sam Barrow is an educator and trainer with a strong background in operations, planning and logistics. She spent 7 years in hospitality before transitioning into the education industry. She has spent the last 8 years conceptualizing and executing operational strategies, while maintaining a focus on continued personal and professional staff development. She completed her M.Ed in Adult Education in 2017 and is currently the Director, Consumer Operations at General Assembly.

Adam Berkowitz is a web developer for the University of Connecticut’s office of University Communications. In his position there, Adam has taken an active role in the area of web accessibility. Other technical interests of Adam’s include: javascript application development, learning about Docker and containerization, and blogging. A  self-taught developer, Adam switched careers from music performance and education to web development in 2016. Outside of work, Adam enjoys spending time with his family.

Rachel Cherry is the Director of WPCampus, as well as a freelance software engineer and consultant with with over ten years experience in back and front-end web development and digital design. Her main areas of focus include accessibility, higher education, and WordPress.

Mark Ciotola a lecturer in the School of Design at San Francisco State University. He also instructs online at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia) and has taught at Monash University (Australia). Mark is also currently on the Alexandria Repository team at Monash University. The Alexandria Repository is a highly-customized Wordpress site to compose, organize, manage and publish course contents. He is also a Entrepreneur in Residence at Singularity University. Mark has a B.A. (Economics) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A. (Physics) and M.B.A. from San Francisco State University and a J.D from the University of New Hampshire. His research concerns developing a science of human history and its implications for sustainability.

Georgy Cohen has spent more than 15 years wrangling digital content for universities, newspapers, and a host of other organizations. She is director of digital strategy at OHO Interactive, a Boston-based, full-service digital agency specializing in higher education. Georgy previously worked at Tufts University and Suffolk University, in addition to running her own independent higher ed consultancy. She speaks frequently, including keynote addresses at HighEdWeb Pittsburgh 2014 and HighEdWeb Arkansas 2011. Georgy's background is in journalism, including a three-year stint working in the fast-paced online newsroom of The Boston Globe.

Tess Dailey is a senior technology sales leader who is passionate about solving complex business problems. For the past six years, Tess has had the opportunity to successfully lead high-functioning sales teams and pave new paths into untouched markets. She has experience in Higher Education with custom and SaaS technologies. Previously she worked with small, mid, and enterprise accounts at innovative organizations such as The Nerdery, Siteimprove, and When I Work. In her current role with Modern Tribe, she works with web leaders to define business challenges and provide solutions through digital technologies.

Brian DeConinck is a Boston-based front-end designer and developer with NC State University’s Office of Information Technology. As part of the OIT Design & Web Services team, he builds custom WordPress themes and plugins for academic and administrative units, helps run campus Multisite environments, and advises campus clients on their content strategy. In all of his projects, Brian is committed to universal design principles emphasizing accessibility, usability and user empathy.

Brian is also co-host of the WPCampus Podcast, where he gets to talk to interesting people about the interesting things they’re doing with WordPress in higher ed.

Over a 30+ year career Randy has been a physicist, teacher, engineer, project manager, IT manager, freelance web developer, business analyst, Zen chaplain, and is now a User Research Manager. In all roles he was trying to get at the root of a problem and work with others to creatively solve the problem. In all cases he found something to tickle his curiosity and to share with others.

Miles Elliott is a Web Developer and Designer with OIT Design and Web Services at NC State. He has a background in graphic design and web development. He enjoys woodworking, electronics, and long walks by western avenue. If you’re lucky you might hear him struggle to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the Laser Harp.

Lauren Etheridge is a Web Developer with OIT Design and Web Services at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. Lauren has a globe trotting background in social work and web development. Ask her about diversity & inclusion, organizational behavior/positive work culture, independent film, David Lynch, comedy shows, music & the Fibonacci Sequence in nature. If you’re lucky you might hear her play the theremin.

Carie Fisher is a Senior Accessibility Instructor and Developer at Deque and has been building websites professionally since 2005. She is passionate about front-end development code and working creatively and effectively to meet all client needs. Carie is passionate about accessibility and promoting diversity in the tech world and is the creator of the Accessibility (A11Y) Style Guide and Accessibility (A11Y) Talks virtual meet-up, designer of the A11y Cats T-shirt, member of the A11y Project team, and past mentor for the OpenAIR Knowbility Challenge.

Alex is an experienced eLearning technical consultant and has over 18 years experience working in Higher Education.

He has overseen the development and implementation of a large number of bespoke institutional wide applications including ePortfolios, tutor support tools, student blogging systems, critical appraisal and peer feedback plugins as well as virtual learning environments.

Both a New Jersey native and a former Bostonian, Joni Halabi is a senior Javascript front-end web developer for Georgetown University. She specializes in developing CMS themes and Javascript applications, and has spent the last 15+ years building solutions for e-commerce corporations, non-profit organizations, and technology companies. Joni has a BS in Computer Science and Electronic Media and a MFA in Electronic Arts, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. When she is not geeking out over code, you can find Joni running or baking (post-run) cookies.

AmyJune has been an active participant in the open source community for 3 years. A self described "non-coder",  she has been a top 20 contributor to the Drupal project two years in a row.

She is an active organizer of the A11yTalks meet-up and is passionate about accessible information for all. Her history as a health care professional provides a rich understanding of the challenges folks may need to overcome and how that may affect their interaction with the web and supporting tools.

Outside of doing work, she enjoys mycology, geocaching, and has a love for air-cooled Volkswagens.

Shelley's career has taken her from a passion for technology to passionately advocating for the people who use technology. Spending many years working in higher education digital communications and marketing made her hyper-aware of the challenges at the intersection of successful web content and practices and the "other duties as assigned" quagmire. Today she's a digital strategist for Modern Tribe tackling enterprise content strategy and technology projects. Her web governance work is focused on higher education and non-profits with some enterprise lessons mixed in for good measure. She's made her Web Governance Through On-Demand Online Training program scripts & slides freely available and regularly posts her latest slide decks in a moderated Facebook group you're welcome to join.

Helen currently works at the Justice Institute of BC as an Instructional Designer where she creates and designs online courses & trainings. She completed her MA in Instructional Technology & Media from Columbia University Teachers College. Outside of her professional role she is also an active member in the Vancouver Maker Education Community, a Mozilla Rep, Webmaker Mentor and mom. She is passionate about #makeredBC #teachtheweb and always interested in #edtech #edchat.

One of the things I really love about the work I do is that I’m frequently faced with new challenges when working on projects, and I have an awesome team to lean on so I’m able to come up with creative ways to problem solve and learn from each experience.

Laurie is an Instructional Technology Specialist with UNC Asheville's Center for Teaching & Learning. She teaches and advises faculty on the use of educational technology, and is the primary administrator of the WordPress at UNC Asheville multisite. Laurie has worked at UNC Asheville since 2012.

Steve is a developer with 12 years of experience building WordPress and Drupal sites. While interning at a theatre company in college, Steve overheard the artistic director say they needed a blog and an online magazine. Steve volunteered to build the sites and WordPress 2.0.4 got the job done. His path was changed and he's been building sites since.

Steve spent much of his career at Palantir.net, a Drupal-focused web agency. Working at Palantir, Steve built sites for a range of clients including Foreign Affairs, Marketplace, Public Radio International, and many higher education institutions. Steve was a co-maintainer of the Workbench suite of modules. You can find patches from Steve all over Drupal core and contributed modules.

Dr. Matthew Stranach is Coordinator, Educational Technologies with Thompson Rivers University's Open Learning division in Kamloops, BC, Canada. Originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick he holds an M.Ed specializing in Instructional Design from University of New Brunswick, and an Ed.D focussing on Eductional Technology. He has 10+ years' experience as an educator, instructional designer, and learning technologist. He is also Ethan and Kai's dad.

Bridget Willard is a marketing consultant who brings her teaching and accounting background together to help small businesses. She began her marketing career in construction, then worked in franchise development, nonprofits, and tech. She is especially known for her brand building for Riggins Construction, GiveWP, and the Make WordPress Marketing Team.

Bridget co-hosts WPblab with Jason Tucker — a podcast and live YouTube show on the WPwatercooler network.

Besides speaking at WordCamps near and far, Bridget was a organizer for Los Angeles for a few years and Orange County since 2017.

When she’s not writing about marketing or social media, she is spending time with her Sully Dog, learning languages on Duolingo, or walking by the ocean.

Say hi to her on Twitter at @youtoocanbeguru and check out her site at bridgetwillard.com.