Speakers

Brianna Privett

Brianna Privett is the founder of Utopian.net and the TechnoSiren Pattern Library for WordPress. She’s been building websites and applications since 1996, and developing for WordPress since 2005. She lives on a small farm with her two sons, fifteen chickens, three pigs, two rabbits, and a greenhouse with killer wi-fi.

Rebecca Haden

Rebecca Haden has been writing for the web since the 20th century, and is the founder and Creative Director of Haden Interactive, a WordPress shop where WordPress websites are built, optimized, and maintained with blogging, analytics, social media, and content marketing.

Andy Brudtkuhl

Professional web developer with expertise in ASP.Net/C#, PHP, WordPress, Javascript, and HTML/CSS in Des Moines, Iowa. Co-organizer of WPDSM – local Des Moines WordPress Meetup group.

Founder of WordPress consulting company 48Web and current employee of the Pork Checkoff where I manage dozens of small, enterprise, and consumer scale WordPress sites.

I have two kids, three dogs, and one wife and I like to ride bikes.

Heather Physioc

I began as a search engine optimization specialist and inbound website marketer in the Kansas City area. With more than 10 years of experience in digital marketing, I am passionate about the constant learning and changing that comes with the practice. In my career, I have worked on major brands like AT&T, 3M, Krispy Kreme, Rawlings, Tylenol, Gatorade, Wendy’s, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and Kellogg’s, among others. My experience also includes being Editor in Chief of an online music magazine, and managing the largest website in the country for cosmetology education. Now I am President of my startup, Tentacle Inbound, a Kansas City-based team that provides WordPress website development/design and digital marketing for small- and medium-sized businesses nationwide. I frequently teach digital marketing seminars and workshops at conferences for small businesses seeking to maximize the ROI for their budgets.

Dave Navarro Jr.

Dave is the Director of Digital Media for Morris Communications. His primary job is the development and maintenance of WordPress web sites for 26 radios stations.

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 works for @SugarfireSmoke.

Chris Koerner

Chris is a long time WordPress tinkerer. He’s been writing with WordPress since 2005 and is a co-organizer of the St. Louis WordPress Community Meetup group. Chris enjoys working with local small business and non-profits to build a sustainable and well-designed web presence – using WordPress of course.

During the day he’s lucky enough to work at Mercy – a non-profit healthcare system headquartered in St. Louis. Chris helps with UI and UX standards for data visualization efforts and helps manage documentation for Mercy’s Data Analytics and Reporting team.

Pippin Williamson

Pippin is a WordPress plugin Developer and founder of numerous plugins. WordPress is his passion, and is constantly striving to make himself better, and hopefully, help out a few people along the way. He posts daily tips and tricks, as well as weekly plugins for free downloads and likes to travel around the United States to give presentations at WordCamps and similar events about WordPress plugin development.

Marianne Worthington

Marianne is the founder of Work Warrior LLC, a company that helps organizations and non-profits build fearless, strong, and skilled teams. Work Warrior focuses on team, leadership, and process development.

For over a decade Marianne has built teams that have exceeded benchmarks, saved client relationships, and increased sales. By focusing on the tangible aspect of team building she has helped teams make the seemingly impossible impossible. She has a strong background in client services, training and developing, and process improvement. Marianne received her Master’s in Organizational Development from Avila in 2010.

Frankie Jarrett

Frankie is a full-stack web developer and entrepreneur working out of St. Joseph, Missouri, as Head of Product for WP Stream, a security tracking plugin that logs every action taken inside WordPress.

Frankie has been building PHP web applications and WordPress products since 2007 and was a core contributor during the 3.6 release cycle. In 2011, he founded a specialty WordPress theme shop, ChurchThemes.net, which was acquired by Lift UX in 2014.

Outside of work, Frankie is the director of music and worship at his local church. He enjoys being a new dad to his newborn son, Rivers, traveling with his wife, Gracie, smoking his own BBQ and yelling at the TV during football games.

Mike Hansen

Mike has been working with WordPress since 2007. He has experience as a custom theme and plugin developer and has been a contributor to WordPress core since version 3.5. When not coding Mike enjoys making it out to local WordPress meetups and helping others to learn and share his passion for WordPress. Mike works on the Open Source team at Bluehost. He is also the author of the MOJO Marketplace plugin.

Topher DeRosia

I’ve been a WordPress developer for 5 years, and a general web developer for 20 years. I’m from Grand Rapids MI, where I live with my wife and two kids.

Jennifer Rosenblatt

Jennifer Rosenblatt is a native Floridian living out her entrepreneurial pioneer story in Lincoln, Nebraska. Jennifer (@jennrosenblatt) is the founder of Argyle Octopus Press (@ArgyleOctopus) and the Cofounder of MusicSpoke (@hearMusicSpoke), both based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Argyle Octopus Press is in its 5th year of business and was recognized by the Small Business Administration as the 2014 Nebraska Small Business of the Year for CD1. What started with a laptop, cell phone, and minivan has grown to 3 full time employees and over 400 customers. Argyle Octopus specializes in design, printing, promotional products, and other marketing services for startups and SMBs. Argyle Octopus is also a graduate of the SCC Entrepreneurship Center Business Incubator Program. Rosenblatt cofounded MusicSpoke with her husband, Dr. Kurt Knecht (@kurtknecht), in the summer of 2014. They were one of only seven teams chosen to participate in the NMotion Accelerator Program in Lincoln and received a prototyping grant from the State of Nebraska. MusicSpoke is building the world’s largest marketplace for artist owned sheet music. Rosenblatt is living through her 9th winter in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband, 2 dogs, and a cat. Her two children reside in the same city as well, just not in the basement anymore. You can connect with Jennifer and learn more at about.me/jennifer.rosenblatt.

Josepha Haden

Josepha comes from a long line of writers and was raised to be a life-long learner. She has a passion for language and storycrafting, a skill she practices on starsandthemoon.com. Josepha has over a decade of experience using SEO, data analysis, and content marketing to bring success and visibility to clients all over the world. Since 2010 she’s been working in her hometown of Kansas City to increase digital literacy and get more women in technology. Josepha works at Automattic as a community organizer for the WordPress open source project and can be found on Twitter as @josephahaden.

Marc Benzakein

Marc Benzakein started programing at the age of ten when he was given access to the main frame at the university in which is father worked. In the mid 90s he caught the internet bug and helped to start up and build a small, independent ISP in Southern California working as a network administrator designing and building the network from the ground up. It quickly became one of the fastest growing regional ISPs in California. He has been involved in almost every aspect of technology throughout. In 2009, he discovered WordPress Development; first for his own purposes and then for clients. In early 2013, he was asked to be part of the ServerPress, LLC team and has taken on the role of Operations Manager since becoming part of the company.

Since joining the team, Marc has spoken at some local area meetups and will be presenting at several WordCamps throughout 2015. He loves WordPress and is always looking for ways in which to give back to the Community which has given so freely to him.

Marc lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he spends as much free time as possible hanging out with his wife Jessica and being a general goof-off with his house full of five kids between the ages of a few months to 10 years old.

Melissa Roberts

ECJC staffer, KCSV feeder, recovering political junkie, entrepreneur, writer, Royals fan

From political campaigns to non-profit management, I’ve worked at the nexus of marketing, persuasion and community organizing. Today, I work at the Enterprise Center of Johnson County, where I help connect entrepreneurs to the resources they need to grow and scale. I also own and operate my own public affairs and social media consulting firm (Free State Strategy Group, LLC), serving a handful of tech and nonprofit clients.

In my free time, you can usually find me running marathons, debating the future of the KCSV in a board meeting, bemoaning the triumph of sarcasm over wit, binge-watching The West Wing or banging my head against a wall in frustration at Kauffman Stadium.

Shane Purnell

Shane Purnell is an IT Professional, Podcaster, Blogger and Speaker. He’s spent the last 15 years studying how technology and communication affect each other. He has multiple blogs on technology, personal development and public speaking You can find out more about him at www.platformgiant.com.

Brian Bookwalter

Brian Bookwalter is the Communications Coordinator for the Kansas Dental Association. Brian has also worked as a freelance WordPress designer and front-end developer for 8 years working with clients ranging from 2 to 100 employees. Brian has spoken at Wordcamp KC in 2012 and prior, was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Kansas State University. He is a new father of twins, each 1 year old (boy and a girl). He loves coffee, WordPress, and the “new” Kansas City Royals.

Michele Butcher

Michele is the lead WordPress Specialist at WP Security Lock cleaning hacked websites and teaching the masses how to keep the bad guys out. She is also one of the WordPress evangelists for InMotion Hosting.

Eric Huber

Eric Huber, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Blue Zoo Creative, has the distinguished honor of telling people when their website and design sucks… and then constructively and creatively finds solutions to create an image that matches their vision and passion.

Huber has 27 years in the design field, 18 in web design, and his experience spans from running a printing press, typesetting, starting a design boutique, and being Creative Director of both the Eureka Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission and in the Corporate Communications department of Tyson Foods, Inc.

As a speaker, Eric has had the honor of sharing his knowledge at WordCamp Fayetteville for the past four years, at the University of Arkansas Small Business College, and works with SCORE to help new businesses with their online presence.

Huber has been working with WordPress since 2008 and is the core CMS used by his company. “The simplicity of WordPress created by the community and the flexibility to become complex fits a wide range of businesses and that’s why we use it and encourage others to use it and build as well.”

Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith tells clients she is “the words girl” and has been active in the WordCamp Fayetteville since its inception. She owns Jamie’s Notebook, a writing services dedicated to giving businesses and organizations a voice using the written word. Most of her work is in corporate blog writing, newsletters, website copywriting, and feature article writing. Jamie and her husband live in Elkins, Ark. with their two dogs and two cats. Her personal blog is Jamie’s Thots.

Kristin Falkner

I am a WordPress developer who specializes in PSD to WordPress & building completely custom themes. I work with agencies all across the country and I’ve had the chance to work on some cool projects for TOMS, Sony, Urban Decay, United Talent Agency & more! I genuinely love working with WordPress and getting the opportunity to bring different designs to life using it.

Kim Beasley

Kim Beasley is a woman who is passionate about developing WordPress websites and using various tools to enhance the website’s environment. She is on a mission to encourage those who want to develop in the WordPress environment to create dynamic website that draw in web visitors. Kim has been developing WordPress websites since 2003 and has been creating websites that focus on membership, portfolios, online presence and strategic marketing.

After obtaining a Bachelor in Organizational Development and a MBA in eBusiness, Kim decided to develop a business that centered on a topic that she is passionate about, the Internet. She created Agape3 Business Services which is the umbrella company for Kim Beasley Consulting (coaching and speaking) and Pro Membership Services (WordPress development website and social media).

Brian Goldstein

Brian Goldstein is a web designer in St. Louis, Missouri who primarily uses WordPress to help his clients achieve their goals.

Mary White

Owner of a small design studio for small business partners.
A continuing education instructor at Johnson County Community College.
Crazy artist and Dog/Puppy lover at Wayside Waifs.

Brent Schultz

Currently a WordPress Engineer for 10up (10up.com), formerly a CMS Engineer at DEG (degdigital.com), primarily a backend developer but intermingle with the front end frequently as I write a lot of Javascript. Speaker at KC WordCamp 2014. PHP and MySQL instructor at Johnson County Community College.