Speakers

We are excited to announce the speakers for WordCamp Buffalo 2023!

We are humbled to have such a variety of highly dedicated, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic WordPressers joining us.

WordCamp speakers are entirely volunteer. They self-fund their travel and accommodations to speak at WordCamps all over the world. We are grateful for their commitment to the Buffalo WordPress community.

  • Adrian Roselli

    Avatar of Adrian Roselli

    Adrian has been a member of the W3C Web Platform Working Group, W3C Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group, and W3C Accessibility Task Force. He has written articles for trade journals, web sites, and participated as an author and editor on five web-related books. Back in 1998 he co-founded a software development consulting firm before leaving at the start of 2016 to start all over. Some may recognize Adrian from his days helping to run evolt.org, one of the first communities for web developers. Adrian has been developing for the Web since 1993.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Aida Correa-Jackson

    Avatar of Aida Correa-Jackson

    Aida Correa-Jackson is an internationally recognized speaker and workshop facilitator. As a seasoned professional, she works to cultivate diversity, equity, and inclusivity where art and technology meet. She is an instructor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, where she teaches inclusivity, diversity, and equity for the web.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Ben Dunkle

    Avatar of Ben Dunkle

    Ben Dunkle is a teacher, designer, and artist. He designed the icons for WordPress 4.7 and the Dashicons that we currently see in the wp-admin. Ben has organized and spoken at numerous WordCamps and runs a bi-weekly WordPress users meetup group in Buffalo, NY.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Chrissie Pollock

    Avatar of Chrissie Pollock

    Chrissie Pollock loves her job working as a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer at Automattic, connecting with community and helping people with their sites. The Buffalo and Rochester WordPress communities hold a special place in her heart.  Outside the computer realm, she’s a snowboarding enthusiast who enjoys slope time with her husband (a fellow WordPress fan).

    Session

  • Christopher Ross

    Avatar of Christopher Ross

    A genuine fan of WordPress, open-source technology, learning, and sharing with the community. When I’m not building newspapers and online education with WordPress, I’m raising a family, sailing, and helping to teach the next generation of developers.

    https://profiles.wordpress.org/thisismyurl/

    Session

  • Courtney Robertson

    Avatar of Courtney Robertson

    Courtney Robertson, an accomplished Open Source Developer Advocate at GoDaddy, a dedicated WordPress Training Team Faculty Member, and a co-founding board member of The WP Community Collective, effortlessly engages audiences with her relatable insights on getting involved and supporting contributors in the open source community. Staying true to her roots as a professional educator, Courtney seamlessly merges her teaching expertise with her passion for technology, both on and off the stage.

    Serving developers, website creators, and open-source enthusiasts, Courtney delivers immense value by drawing from her rich background as a computer science educator and full-stack developer. She is driven by a strong commitment to onboarding the next generation of contributors and advocating for sustainable funding solutions for open-source developers.

    Away from the screen, Courtney embraces her creative side, whether by playing her 7-string electric violin, exploring the possibilities of 3D printing, hiking through nature with a camera in hand, or tending to her abundant vegetable garden. Her multifaceted interests and genuine enthusiasm make Courtney a truly inspiring speaker in the open-source community.

    Sessions

    Sessions

  • Damon Cook

    Avatar of Damon Cook

    Damon Cook is a Developer Advocate at WP Engine. Previously, he navigated the WordPress agency land for a decade. He is a purveyor and discoverer of musical frisson. He can be found in the realms of WordPress Slack, WooCommerce Slack, and Twitter.

    Sessions

    Session

  • James Giroux

    Avatar of James Giroux

    James Giroux has a long history in the WordPress community, having been involved since 2006 as a user, freelancer, agency owner, theme and plugin developer, marketer, educator and community wrangler.

    He launched TeamWP, a platform that helps WordPress teams improve their leadership skills and work culture. James has worked with prominent brands in the WordPress ecosystem including Envato, Rocketgenius and StellarWP.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Jason Coleman

    Avatar of Jason Coleman

    Jason is co-author of Building Web Apps with WordPress, Co-owner and CTO of LifterLMS, and Co-founder and CEO of Paid Memberships Pro. Businesses Jason is involved in earn millions of dollars per year selling products for WordPress. Jason works out of his home in Reading, Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife and business partner Kimberly Coleman and their two children.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Maestro Stevens

    Avatar of Maestro Stevens

    Maestro Stevens is a highly skilled brand webmaster and founder of “The Iconic Expressions” creative agency.

    He has 8+ years of career experience in areas such as marketing strategy, brand strategy, WordPress development, and project management.

    Maestro enjoys using premium technologies and strategies to simplify life, cooking, learning, and traveling.

    In 2022 Maestro developed “Iconic Templates,” to focus on creating free and premium template resources for WordPress users.

    Sessions

    Sessions

  • Marybeth Smith

    Avatar of Marybeth Smith

    Marybeth Smith is an Affiliate Program Manager for Nexcess. She is in charge of all her company’s WordPress and WooCommerce affiliate accounts. She helps her affiliates take their sites to the next level by creating valuable content that helps monetize their sites while building up their SEO. Marybeth has attended 3 WordCamps and is intrigued by the WordPress community. She has very much enjoyed watching it grow and evolve over time. In her spare time she enjoys running, yoga, writing, and spending time with her puppy Fezziwig.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Micah Wood

    Avatar of Micah Wood

    Micah is a WordPress developer at Bluehost. He’s a WordPress core contributor, plugin developer, and meetup organizer and has spent the last 15 years learning, living, and building with WordPress.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Michelle Frechette

    Avatar of Michelle Frechette

    Michelle Frechette is the Director of Community Engagement for StellarWP at Liquid Web.

    Michelle was called “The busiest woman in WordPress.” by Matt Mullenweg at WCUS 2022.

    In addition to her work at StellarWP, Michelle is the Podcast Barista at WPCoffeeTalk.com, cofounder of underrepresentedintech.com, creator of wpcareerpages.com, the president of the board for BigOrangeHeart.org, Director of Community Relations and contributor at PostStatus.com, co-host of the WPMotivate podcast, author, business coach, and a frequent organizer and speaker at WordPress events. Michelle lives outside of Rochester, NY where she’s an avid nature photographer. You can learn more about Michelle at meetmichelle.online.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Nev Harris

    Avatar of Nev Harris

    Nev shows agency owners where the profit is hiding in their business.

    He has owned an agency the last 7 years and owes a lot of his success to the supportive WordPress community. The “profit guy” started as a passion project to give back to the community but at the urging of several friends morphed into something bigger.

    He has fancy degrees and he started with the suit and tie job but found that to be insanely boring. It’s his down to earth take on finance for the tech world that has led to him being featured in numerous national media outlets. You can say he is the guy they call when they want to talk about money without putting the audience to sleep.

    See money talk doesn’t need to be scary. Or boring. Or something you do behind closed doors with an accountant who appears to be speaking another language.

    It is the key to unlocking the profit trapped in your business and lowering your stress around cash flow and expenses.

    On a personal note, he’s shockingly single with no kids. He does have a dog, Romeo but his ex-gf took him saying something like it was her dog because she bought him three years before they met. Romeo and he disagree but she seems one hell of a lot bigger than 5 foot when she is explaining this so their love goes unrequited.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Peter Surowski

    Avatar of Peter Surowski

    Peter is the founder and CTO of a boutique web design and development agency called Brain Jar. He’s also the Curriculum Director of WP Code Camp, the country’s only WordPress-based coding bootcamp. He has been working in web production for 23 years for such companies as AOL and Automattic.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Sajid Islam

    Avatar of Sajid Islam

    Sajid has 20 years of experience in digital transformation, digital experience, and customer experience, working at some of the world-class brands such as HP, Autonomy, Interwoven.

    Sajid has expertise in building successful web & mobile marketing solutions by applying time-tested knowledge in Analytics, Landing Page Experience, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Copywriting. Furthermore, he has managed 5+ million dollars in Google Ads on behalf of his clients, predominantly small businesses.

    Sajid founded marketANDgrow after being sick and tired of seeing so many entrepreneurs and business owners lose their shirts on their first ad campaigns, only to let their discouragement hold them back from one of the greatest advertising channels available. His first foray into Marketing & Entrepreneurship began in 1997 with an e-Commerce venture which paid his tuition for his university degree. He holds an M.S in Computer Science and lives in Fairfax, VA.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Sophia DeRosia

    Avatar of Sophia DeRosia

    Sophia has spent most of her life in the WordPress community, but got more closely involved in 2014, when she went to her first WordCamp at age 12. She has experience with BuddyPress, writing, and enjoys speaking and volunteering at various WordCamps. Right now she’s focusing on building her career, starting with internships with small WordPress design companies, and learning as much as she can as she goes.

    She is a young, motivated individual. She jumps on any opportunity that comes her way, and is a taskmaster in regards to careers and creative endeavors. She’s also a musician, painter, and trained barista.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Tiffany Bridge

    Avatar of Tiffany Bridge

    Tiffany Bridge is is a local rabble-rouser, a holder of strong opinions, a darn good cook, and the person you call first when your friend moves to her town.
    Currently she is applying her talents to helping small businesses grow with WordPress as the Product Manager for WordPress eCommerce at Nexcess, part of the Liquid Web family of brands.
    She lives in Washington, DC with her spouse, child, and cat. You can find her on Twitter: @tiffany, or very sporadically at her neglected blog, https://tiff.is.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Timothy Jacobs

    Avatar of Timothy Jacobs

    Timothy Jacobs is a WordPress developer at iThemes where he works on the iThemes Security plugin. He’s a WordPress Core Committer for the REST API component. You can find him at https://timothybjacobs.com where he attempts to blog semi-regularly about WordPress development.

    Sessions

    Session

  • Topher DeRosia

    Avatar of Topher DeRosia

    Topher has been a web developer for over 25 years, working on WordPress exclusively for 12 years. In recent years he’s also worked in marketing, sales, and community work. He’s currently working as a WordPress Engineer at WebDev Studios, runs the HeroPress Network, and curates HeroPress.com. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife Cate.

    Sessions

    Sessions

  • William D Jackson

    Avatar of William D Jackson

    William is a retired teacher of 33 years, he continues to volunteer in the Jacksonville, Florida community at schools, colleges, community centers and online.

    William is a Certified VR (Victory XR) and STEAM+M Educator and is a member of the World Metaverse Council, he is a Spatial Metaverse Creator, participates in the WordCamp and WordPress Global Community and a member of GatherVerse / GatherVerse Africa Community.

    William has been part of the WordPress / WordCamp community since 2010 where his first WordCamp was in Orlando, Florida and his wife’s first WordCamp conference as WordCamp Miami in 2018. William graduated from South Carolina State University earning a Bachelor’s in Education and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Webster University with a focus on Educational Technology and STEAM.

    He is a former NASA Educator in the State of Florida. William’s focus is the integration of technology into classroom curriculums and cross-curriculum instruction in hands-on project development. He and his wife now focus on Metaverse Education and Learning and building youth, teens and young adults globally into entrepreneurs with immersive technologies and WordPress.

    His digital connections are

    • Email: metamyquesttoteach@gmail.com
    • Blog: My Quest To Teach – https://myquesttoteach.com/
    • Twitter: @myquesttoteach
    • Instagram: @myquesttoteach
    • My YouTube Channel:
    • http://www.youtube.com/user/williamjacksoninfl

    Sessions

    Session

WordCamp Buffalo 2023 is over. Check out the next edition!