Speakers

Alex Sanchez

Emily White

Emily White is a freelance web and graphic designer who specializes in creating custom WordPress sites for successful bloggers and small businesses. Since 2008 she’s worked with hundreds of clients from around the world, helping them grow their businesses and personal brands. As a recommended Genesis developer, her custom sites are a regular feature in the Studiopress theme showcase. Emily lives in San Antonio with her husband and three daughters.

Mary Baum

Veteran creative, degreed designer, direct-response copywriter turned #genesiswp broad. Speak some @WordCamps; permanent co-organizer of #wcstl.

Nuts about type, tennis, cats, Macs and the desert. Wife @dickmoomaw, mother @sarahmoomaw. Son making his way in the world without a Twitter account – go figure..

Steve Hall

I am the content manager and designer for Denton Bible Church. I’m a committed geek and spend my time learning new technology and developing ways to implement it. I love sharing my knowledge with anyone who wants to learn.

I’ve spent most of my adult life teaching, coaching and encouraging kids of all ages in everything from church groups to sports teams. I love seeing the look in a kid’s eyes as they learn something they are interested in. I’m excited to be introducing WordPress to our next generation of web designers/developers.

I spend most of my free time trying to get my wife and three kids as excited about technology as I am. Occasionally I succeed.

James Dalman

James Dalman is an U.S. Army Veteran and the founder of Happy Joe, a non-profit organization that specializes in helping military veterans launch successful careers and businesses in the web technology industry. James has been in the branding, design, and web media industry for over twenty years and has done work for HTC, BMW, Michael Hyatt, Nike Golf, Eskimo Joes, NASCAR, and Arnold Palmer. He was one of the first WordPress theme designers in the marketplace and has spoken at numerous WordCamps.

Mendel Kurland

Hey there, I’m Mendel, an intrapreneurial change-maker, developer, speaker, and teacher.

I love the outdoors, so you’ll usually find me hittin’ the trails between tech events and code-slinging. I’ve also usually got my nose in a cup of single origin, Chemex-brewed coffee. As a GoDaddy Evangelist, I spend most of my time hanging out with developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and creative people all around the world to make sure their opinions and suggestions are heard.

Jon Kendall

Jon is the sales partner at Osky Blue, an online marketing and software development company based in Frisco Texas. He has 15 years of experience in business growth, sales and development. He has delivered over 400 seminars, classes and training sessions throughout the country on how to do online marketing effectively. He understands the right way to make online marketing efforts profitable. He has a passion for helping people achieve their dreams of business ownership and success, and has found online marketing the best way of doing this. In his free time he loves golfing, watching college football and spending time with his wife, two kids and dog, Bernie.

David Brumbaugh

David, a Web Engineer with 10 Up, is a long time software engineering professional and author, who has been involved in Internet development since 1994.

Before focusing on WordPress, David wore many hats. He was the Director of IT and Software Engineering for an international health insurance company where he created and maintained a web based health insurance enrollment system. As Chief of South Eastern Operations for an international IT consulting firm, he had to “MacGyver together” a network out of old parts so that his client could locate missing cargo vessels in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In that position, he also provided testimony as an expert witness in Federal court, weighing in on alleged software copyright infringement.

David has also worked as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies in the manufacturing and insurance industries. When he repaired a legacy inventory and ordering system for a major greeting card company just before one of their biggest sales days, he became known as, “The Programmer who Saved Mother’s Day”.

His professional writing has been published by SitePoint, Microsoft, Dice, C/C++ User’s Journal, PC Techniques and John Wiley & Sons.

David has four major game titles to his credit as an artificial intelligence and physics simulation programmer: NFL Full Contact Football, Indy Racing – Road to the Indianapolis 500, Jeff Gordon XS Racing and Centipede 3D. Lest his “Geek Cred” be remotely in doubt, he has also been published in Dragon magazine.

During his time as the Web Development Community Guide for DICE, he was impressed with the elegance of WordPress not only as a publishing tool, but as a web application platform. Before joining 10up, David worked as Chief Software Architect for a web services company specializing in SaaS eCommerce, where he created a plugin that integrated his company’s eCommerce services with WordPress.

Jeremy Green

I started building websites back in 1999 and enjoy staying on top of the latest techniques in web design and implementing them into my client’s sites. I spend most of my time building custom themes and plugins, and running a web development shop full time. I also organize the Fort Collins CO WordPress meetup and helped organize WordCamp Denver this year.

Seth Alling

Seth Alling is a Detroit-based developer turned designer turned developer, who has been working with WordPress since 2009 and currently works as the Lead Developer for Ranch House Designs. When he’s not developing (or designing), you can find him running, playing soccer or spending time with his wife and sons.

Ronald Huereca

I began my WordPress journey in 2006. I created several home-grown CMS-type systems, and checked out WordPress on a whim. I was immediately impressed and decided to use that on my website.

I developed my own theme from scratch within a week of installing WordPress. I started to write more, and realized there were many features I wanted added to WordPress.

I released my first WordPress plugin in 2007 called Feed Styler: https://wordpress.org/plugins/feed-styler/

I began a project with a friend that gave focus to the readers. Somebody commented and e-mailed us saying they would like to edit their comment. I found a few solutions, but nothing elegant. I coded and released Ajax Edit Comments in 2007 as well, and it has been by far my most popular plugin.

Since 2007, I have been fairly active in the WordPress community. I released a WordPress book called WordPress and Ajax in 2011. I’ve also released several more plugins.

I look forward to keep contributing to WordPress, whether it is through plugins, documentation updates, or speaking at WordCamps.

Reagan Lynch

Reagan Lynch is the president and founder of Our Little Blessings a non-profit serving children with disabilities and special needs, the CEO of Alpha Omega Strategies a managed services provider, an ordained minister, and an all around good guy. A WordPress user since 2004 Today Reagan as a person who is blind builds websites in WordPress, and is on a mission to improve the accessibility of the entire wordPress platform.

Morgan Estes

Morgan is currently a Web Engineer with 10up, focusing on creating a great web publishing experience for clients using WordPress. Although he’s been a Core Contributor to the WordPress open source project and a member of the OKC WordPress User Group since 2009, he’s become more active in the past two years after attending his first WordCamp.

A proud “computer geek”, Morgan first learned programming in elementary school from source code printed in the back of magazines. He built his first website in 1998, and continued to tinker with computers and Web technology over the next decade.

After over a decade in the Navy, he decided to leave the service and study Information Systems in college, eventually earning his degree in Liberal Studies. After college, he took a job managing a 6,000-page website using Dreamweaver. Seeing the futility in this, he started looking for CMSs, finally landing on WordPress, which he’s since used to build sites large and small, from eCommerce and membership sites to nonprofits, community organizations, and blogs.

When not delving into code, he likes to visit the zoo with his wife and daughter, take photos he never does anything with, and choke back tears when a companion leaves Doctor Who.

John Kent

John is the Website Director for the North Texas Information Security Systems Association (ISSA), owner of Mind Machine Media, and an IT Manager providing leadership in the development of web applications, APIs, and native mobile clients at FedEx.

He’s been developing software since the early 80’s and implementing networked and embedded systems since 1987 for Fortune 100 companies in the medical diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and transportations industries. John holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a masters in cybersecurity. His active certifications include PMP, CEH, CHFI, and CSSLP. He’s passionate about web application security and helping others learn more about it.

Marc Gratch

I am a WordPress developer, a student at UTA, a husband and father. I have been using WordPress since 2.8 (give or take a point release.) I build custom themes and plugins, I have contributed to a couple of WordPress repo plugins and I am working up the courage to contribute to core.

Pat Ramsey

Building relationships is key to any successful partnership, be it in business or life in general. At Crowd Favorite, Pat gets to do that every day as Director of Ongoing Client Support, where he leads a team providing development support, consultation, and strategy for enterprise clients. Before Crowd Favorite, Pat has been a development director, an independent WordPress developer, and a freelancer.

When he’s not building websites, Pat can be found organizing the Austin WordPress Meetup or helping run the tech networking community, Refresh Austin. He’s been a trainer and advisor for Knowbility’s Accessible Internet Rallies and AccessU, and a founder the WordPress conference “after-after” party, CigarCamp. Pat is a former Navy Reserve sailor, a native Texan, and enjoys cooking large quantities of crawfish.

Brandon Kraft

Kraft, as he’s better known, started building websites in 1996 and hasn’t looked back. Kraft has worked with his own “weblog” since 2002, first in HTML, then Movable Type, then finally to WordPress. Kraft ran a freelance web development business exclusively using WordPress and Genesis. Now, Kraft works at Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, focusing on Jetpack. Married with five young daughters, you can follow Kraft on Twitter ( @Kraft ) and on his personal site ( https://kraft.im )

Troy Braithwaite

Troy is the marketing partner at Osky Blue, a Frisco based online marketing and software development company. He is an entrepreneur with a passion for small business. He has helped hundreds of small businesses grow and increase profitability. His first venture was an accounting firm that he started right after graduating from college. Over three years, he grew the practice through effective online marketing and guerrilla marketing practices, took it paperless and virtual, and increased profitability by 40%. He then sold the practice so he could pursue his greatest passion: small business online marketing. A driving force in his own success is a desire to help other small businesses. When not working, Troy enjoys golfing, fishing, Dallas’ sporting events and spending time with his wife, four kids and of course, his beloved dog, Osky.

John P. Gamboa

John P. Gamboa is a Enterprise Support Specialist at WP Engine in Austin, Texas. Having lived Singapore, South Korea and China for the better part of four years, John worked as a technical editor, writer, teacher and developer. He was also a founding member and WordPress developer for Shanghai Beer Week, China’s first-ever craft beer week. You can read about John’s work and years living overseas at jpgamboa.com, or @jgamboa on Twitter.

Elayna Fernandez

Elayna Fernandez, The Positive MOM, teaches bloggers how to turn their passion into their paycheck through her trademarked 7p Guerrilla Positioning System™ (GPS) so they can increase Credibility, Visibility and Profitability™, and ultimately elevate their Impact, Income, and Influence.

Elayna encourages, empowers, and equips moms worldwide to have more influence at home, more impact in the world, and more income to make it happen, so they can live a life with JOY, BALANCE, and SUCCESS on their own terms without the guilt, struggles, and overwhelm. Her philosophy is, “BE Positive and You’ll BE Powerful!”

Elayna is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer, Bestselling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and Certified Passion Test Facilitator, trusted by thousands of entrepreneurs and some of the world’s successful leaders.

Her philosophy is, “BE Positive and You’ll BE Powerful!”

For a longer bio, please visit: http://thepositivemom.com/media-center

Doug Stewart

Doug has been using Linux since 1997 or so, but don’t hold that against him. He brings over 15 years of experience in the IT industry to bear on problems related to networks, systems and software, with a special penchant for solving problems in the Linux space. He has spent time at software giants like IBM, in the advanced US Defense Department research community, working with geneticists and medical researchers as a high-performance computing administrator and has even spent a bit of time in a startup or two back in the first Internet Bubble. Lately, he has been working heavily in the areas of systems automation and virtualization.

Doug first came across WordPress in 2004 during the Great Licensing Wars and has been a dedicated WP user and contributor since version 1.0. He has experience in developing themes and plugins, contributing to the core WordPress software, participating in the greater community and helping WordPress users get the most out of their sites.

Doug also co-organizes the monthly Philadelphia WordPress Meetup and the yearly WordCamp Philadelphia and Tech Week Philly events and is very involved in the Philadelphia metro area WordPress community.

When he’s not wrangling Linux, Doug can be found keeping busy with his wife and four kids. He coaches his son’s lacrosse team, is an avid reader, actively participates in his church and community events, and is consumer of music of all kinds. He also owns a kilt.

John P. Bloch

John P Bloch is a Lead Web Engineer at 10up where he spends his time helping clients with large and complex WordPress sites. John started working with WordPress in 2008 and hasn’t stopped since. A recent transplant to the DFW area, John spends his time at home in Irving enjoying the BBQ, sunsets, and warm nights of North Texas.

Pete Nelson

Senior web developer with nearly 20 years of experience, been developing for WordPress the past four years

Elisha and Elyssa Fernandez

Elisha is a homeschooled twelve-year-old, and a passionate author, artist, kidpreneur, and speaker. She loves to write, read, spell, draw, paint, and play the piano and guitar. She is proud to be a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Practitioner, trained by Jay Conrad Levinson himself. If Elisha had only 3 words to describe herself they would be creative, generous, and humorous. Elisha lives in Fort Worth, TX with her family and she loves spending time with them. She wrote I Love ME! at age ten, because she is passionate about helping other kids become bully-proof, love themselves, and be the best they can be.

Elyssa is eleven years old. She enjoys being an entrepreneur, speaker, artist, and coach. She is homeschooled, and her greatest coach and mentor is her mom, Elayna Fernandez. Elyssa plays the guitar and piano, and she loves to play with her sisters, draw, read, write stories, dance ballet, play tennis, and bike. She’s fascinated with nature, especially animals, and to avoid hurting them, she became vegan. Elyssa teaches children to love themselves and have self-confidence through her books, blog posts, and artistic expressions. Elyssa would be thrilled to get to know you.

Chris Lema

While Chris has a day job managing software engineers, he’s best known for relentlessly writing blog posts (regardless of who reads them) and tirelessly telling stories (regardless of who hears them). He loves people, preaching, and puffing cigars. Oh, and WordPress.

Christopher Harris

Born a geek, Christopher Harris coded his first website in 1997. In 2005 he launched Faith Growth, a Dallas-based consulting company that builds custom Genesis WordPress sites for domestic and international small business and faith-based clients. Christopher particularly enjoys helping churches develop a digital-first mindset, to effectively engage and grow their communities online. Christopher is an active contributor to the local WordPress community.

September 12, 2015

WordCamp DFW | September 12, 2015 is over. Check out the next edition!