We have MORE wonderful speakers! Meet them!
Joni Halabi
Joni is a Senior Web Developer for Georgetown University. She specializes in developing CMS themes and Javascript applications, and has spent the last 20 years building solutions for higher education, 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. Outside of work, Joni is a single mom to an amazing toddler, a long-distance runner, and a lover of live music. Learn more at https://thatdevgirl.com and https://jhalabi.com.
Russell Heimlich
Russell Heimlich has been wrangling the interwebz since the dawn of the century. By day he is a Senior Interactive Developer at nclud, a provocative creative agency. By night he is a small human co-wrangler of two daughters with the help from his partner in crime, Kristina. True to his name, he is capable of life-saving choking maneuvers for the greater human good. Milkshakes make him smile.
Tracy Levesque
Tracy Levesque is the co-owner and co-founder of YIKES, Inc. a web design and development agency located in Philadelphia. Women and LGBT owned, YIKES is a proud WordPress VIP agency partner and certified B Corporation focusing on sustainable business practices and observing the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profits.
Tracy has been involved with web development since the 90s and at YIKES you can find her managing projects, running discovery meetings and working on business development. Tracy also loves to teach and present on all things WordPress. She has spoken at WordCamps Philly, New York, Montreal, San Francisco, San Diego, Lancaster and WordCamp US. She was also a contributor to multiple versions of WordPress and gave the keynote at WordCamp Philly 2018. As a former Girl Develop It instructor, Tracy developed and taught the WordPress curriculum for GDI, and co-developed and taught the Web development program for inmates at Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution.
When not behind a computer, Tracy loves to enjoy the Philly food scene, ride her bike around the city, play drums, hang out with her wife & daughter and watch a lot of television.
Jeannette Washington, M.Ed.
Jeannette Washington, M.Ed. worked as a speech pathologist and software engineer before facilitating the first ever WordCamp talk about programming while dyslexic. She recently released the book Technical Difficulties: Why Dyslexic Narratives Matter In Tech. Jeannette owns Bearly Articulating a diversity, equity and inclusion think tank.
John F. Croston III
John has 18+ years of experience of mainframe programming (COBOL) and 14+ years of web programming experience and about 10 years of that has been accessibility related.
Mauricio Dinarte
Mauricio Dinarte is passionate about open source, teaching, and traveling. Over the years, he has presented 30+ sessions and trainings in events across America and Europe, including WordCamp US and DrupalCon. He serves as a lead organizer of the Nicaraguan Drupal community. He also volunteers with the WordPress community helping organize WordCamp Managua. Mauricio believes in the value of communities working together and looks for collaboration opportunities and ways to learn from each other.
Laura Byrne Cristiano
Laura began her career with non-profits, where marketing the mission was part of everyone’s job. After dabbling in FrontPage for a few years, Laura found WordPress in 2006 when she and a friend unexpectedly created a viral website. Thrust into a vortex of website management meets Hollywood, her marketing arsenal exponentially grew with new skill sets in SEO, social media strategy, podcasting, event management, and more. These days, Laura works for Bet Hannon Marketing. She’s created/written content for over 50 WordPress sites mostly in the non-profit and entertainment worlds. Laura currently resides in Philadelphia, PA with her husband, Kevin, and dog, Scully.
Joseph Parsley
Even though his title is simply Front-End Developer at Matrix Group International, Joseph wears a lot of hats. While most of his day is spent making sure all web pages look good and work efficiently, he’s also the company’s go-to resource for all things Google Analytics. He also helps to migrate content, test websites in different browsers and devices, and, perhaps most importantly, helps clients create and manage their analytics reports.
Chris Walbert
Joining Drexler in 2010, Chris Walbert has a wide range of marketing and writing experience that he brings to our clients. Over the last 16 years, Chris has worked extensively in strategy, copywriting, account management and various marketing disciplines, including digital media planning, email, and search. As part of the Drexler team, Chris leads our Crate&Barrel / CB2 account and works with Ceremony Coffee, Chrysler Museum of Art, Mt. Cuba Center, and many others.
Dharma Pachner
Dharma Pachner is the Founder and Creative Director of Contrast & Co. (www.contrastandco.com), an award-winning boutique brand strategy and design driven to create strikingly different brand experiences. From industry startups to established national players, Dharma and his team have conceived award-winning brands that defy industry conventions and power their clients to stand out in the great sea of similarity. Prior to founding Contrast & Co., he has been the Creative, Interactive, and User-Experience Director at DC’s leading creative and digital agencies including HZDG (www.hzdg.com) and the recently acquired Chief, now known as U-Group (www.u.group).
In the span of his career, Dharma has reimagined and redefined brands for the most visible organizations in the world including Disney, The Department of State, Sandals Resorts, Hyundai, Seventh Generation, Newman’s Own Foundation, and Rockefeller Center. For as long as he can remember, he has been challenging conventions and exploring the undiscovered. He stumbled into this industry two decades ago as a somewhat fresh-faced young designer, and has continued to invent—and reinvent—himself every day since. In the span of his career, he has been a designer, a developer, an information architect, user experience lead, and the creative visionary behind hundreds of projects who has inspired countless others along the way.
But his best days still lie ahead, and Dharma is determined to continue to create brand experiences that leave a powerful and lasting mark in this industry. The world of branding and design will always be filled with constraints, and it is tempting to succumb to them. But real opportunity usually lies deeply buried within the insurmountable, and that is exactly the space you will find him exploring.
Michelle Schulp
Michelle is an independent graphic designer and frontend developer in Minneapolis. Prior to beginning her career, she studied Visual Communications, with minors in Psychology and Sociology. As her work progressed, she also branched into front-end development and user experience design to round our her skillset. This combination of disciplines led her to adopt a strategy-based approach to design, focused on solving tangible problems and achieving real goals based on how people think. Now, she collaborates on projects with clients ranging from solopreneurs to enterprise. She loves the open source community, and when she is not working on projects she speaks/volunteers/organizes at events and workshops around the country. Her passions are communication and empowerment, and she believes in the power of “Why?”
Jacob Hardbower
As the Front-End Developer at Greenpeace USA, Jacob has spent the past three years utilizing WordPress to create a content-publishing environment for staff at all skill levels.