James Laws
Cleveland, TN
James Laws is the co-creator of Ninja Forms and co-owner of WP Ninjas, LLC. He lives in Cleveland, TN and spends most of his time creating WordPress plugins and brainstorming new ideas. While he started out as a web designer, and still does some design work on occasion, his real passion is solving problems in new and creative ways using WordPress and plugins.
When he is not working on the project currently on his screen, you can find him either running or enjoying a great cup of coffee.
John Housholder
Nashville, TN
Wireframes for WordPress
John is a Nashville WordPress designer and developer who helps run the Nashville WordPress Meetup and WP Nashville, a local WordPress site for Nashvillians seeking help with WordPress. He also teaches WordPress and web development classes at the Art Institute of Tennessee and runs Ah So Designs a WordPress development shop.
John tweets about his dog Dunn, denim, and WordPress at @jhous1
Anna Hamil
Nashville, TN
Anna works at 2 the Top Web Design which specializes in SEO and custom WordPress websites. She is the co-organizer of the Nashville SEO & Internet Marketing Group. Anna holds a degree in Interactive Media and Web Design and in her spare time does freelance work.
Cindy Cullen
Bowling Green, KY
Cindy bought her first computer (a vic-20) in 1983. She has degrees from NSTI and APSU in computers and has worked for companies such as GE, The American Chemical Society and Iostudio, LLC. She has taught computers to both kids and adults in high school and college, as well as at homeschool co-ops and online. She built her first website in 1999 and started her own free-lance web development business in 2003. She began using WordPress shortly after it was introduced in 2003 and began using it almost exclusively in 2012.
Kate O’Neill
Keynote Speaker
Nashville, Tennessee
Kate is principal of KO Insights, consultant, entrepreneur and former founder of [meta] marketer, will be the keynote speaker. She is a Nashville Technology Council and Evolve Women board member and a visible, passionate advocate for women in leadership and technology as well as the city’s growing technology community.
Help Desk Staff
Some of Nashville’s brightest and best WordPress talents and a handful of Automatticians.
Marcus Crutcher
Franklin, TN
Marcus Crutcher owns a marketing agency in Franklin, TN where he works with WordPress for website design, development, & blogging on a daily basis. He has been designing websites for 5 years and working with WordPress since 2011. Marcus believes the WordPress community is growing stronger every year, and he’s thankful for the many great developers and designers who are willing to share their expertise with others. If he’s not working on a project, you’ll probably find him playing guitar or hanging out with his wife Paige & their two dogs.
Michele Butcher
Carbondale, IL
Michele is a full time blogger, designer, and all around awesome person. Michele started her love for WordPress back in 2010. She got her feet wet working with Bit51 as a content creator and support ninja until its merger with iThemes. Michele is also the Organizer for the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup and the founder of 13 Core (coming soon!). When not in front of a screen, Michele enjoys life with her family and friends.
Mitch Canter
Franklin, TN
Mitch Canter is an international speaker, technology enthusiast, and software developer from Franklin, TN. His mission is to take the foundations of the digital landscape (code, design, technology, marketing, and social media) and break them down into their binary pieces. He strives to push technology and online media to new levels to help businesses, non-profits, and industry leaders tell their story online. He has been working with WordPress for 10 years, and has worked with businesses, bloggers, and more to help them tell their story online.
Steve Wilkison
Nashville, TN
Steve Wilkison is an Associate Professor at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film here in Nashville where he teaches numerous courses on web design and development, including a class dedicated to WordPress, PHP & MySQL. Wilkison is also the owner of Digital Vision Media, a small Nashville web development company specializing in custom WordPress sites. A veteran of the music industry, Wilkison has been designing and building websites for almost twenty years.
Robin Cornett
Chattanooga, TN
Robin is a WordPress developer who started working with WordPress when she needed a website for her photography business. Over the past several years, website work has taken over her business, which is exciting as each new client presents a unique challenge. Robin and her husband live near Chattanooga, Tennessee, with their three children and tiny but surprisingly rugged dog.
Jon Henshaw
Nashville, TN
Jon Henshaw is the co-founder of Raven Internet Marketing Tools, an online marketing management and reporting platform. He has been involved with website development and Internet strategy since 1995. Before Raven, he worked as an Interaction Designer for Visa in Denver, CO, where he helped develop Web applications for their consumer and corporate customers.
Sue Anne Reed
Sue Anne Reed has worked in online marketing for her entire 15+ years in a wide range of industries. Five years ago, she started working exclusively for nonprofits and other social good companies. At The Engage Group, Sue Anne has worked on projects for Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, The Wilderness Society, and the League of Women Voters. She was an integral part of the team that launched the online gift catalog for The Audubon Society, which won a Maxi Award from the DMAW in 2013. Prior to joining The Engage Group in 2012, Sue Anne worked for Care2, where she managed their public relations outreach and helped fuel exponential growth in their social media presence. She also worked for EMQ FamiliesFirst, one of the largest nonprofits in California serving children and families, and grew their email marketing program by over 2000% and launched their social media efforts. Sue Anne is a regular speaker at social media and nonprofit industry events, including the 2013 & 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference, the 2012 Bridge Conference and PodCamp Nashville 2013.
Beth Downey
Nashville, TN
Beth is a self-taught front-end WordPress developer; she started her career in graphic design but later decided to transition to web development. She works at Sprclldr where she and founder Kenneth White work with designers and small agencies to create custom themes.
Mark Tune
Nashville, TN
Mark Tune has been operating websites and making money from the internet since 1996. His focus is on ecommerce and authority sites using WordPress. Mark has a financial background as a Chief Financial Officer with several large companies as well as running his own company with 30 employees. He has worked as a Certified Public Accountant and has a MBA from Vanderbilt.
Joel Norris
Nashville, TN
Although occasionally mistaken for Alex Sector, he actually hails from deep within the frozen North. Like most Mainahs he has a devotion to Phish and a minor in Snowboarding. He is an adjunct professor at The Art Institute of Tennessee, Nashville with a degree in Web & Interactive Media Design. He’s been tinkering in WordPress since v2.7. Web standards are a must and Code is Poetry, although in software driven by community it can, at times, be more limerick than haiku… but who doesn’t enjoy a good limerick?
Samuel Wood (otto)
Memphis, TN
Samuel Wood, better known to the WordPress community as “Otto”, lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Otto is a Tech Ninja at Audrey Capital, Matt Mullenweg’s investment and research company. When not hacking away at WordPress or the WordPress.org website, he spends his time homebrewing or scuba diving or searching out the best BBQ he can find, which he will always say is in Memphis.
Liz Fulghum
Nashville, TN
Liz is the President of NoSleepForSheep, a Nashville web design and digital marketing agency that’s passionate about communicating clients’ stories through creative and strategic branding, web sites, and marketing campaigns.
D’nelle Dowis
Nashville, TN
D’nelle is the chief distiller of awesomesauce at Berry Interesting Productions, where she nurtures little website seedlings into healthy, hardy WordPress sites. She works from anywhere there’s wifi, fancying herself location-independent, but can most often be found kicking around Inglewood, occasionally with her husband, Chris and/or dog, Cece, in tow. She loves sunshine, yoga, Apple products, and the oxford comma all a little too much.
Michael Toppa
Havertown, PA
Mike Toppa has been coding for the web since the days of HTML 1.0, and he caught the WordPress bug when he wrote his first plugin in 2007. He’s currently a Software Engineer for PromptWorks in Philadelphia, and previously he was the Director of Development for WebDevStudios. Mike’s also worked at U Penn, Stanford, Georgetown, Ask Jeeves, and E-Trade. Outside of work you will most likely find Mike embroiled in a Nerf gun battle with his two young boys.
Pamela Coyle
Nashville, TN
Pamela Coyle is a longtime newspaper reporter/editor turned content strategist/creator, mostly for tech clients. She first met WordPress in 2010 and took the big dive in 2012, joining the WP Nashville MeetUp and volunteering as Content Lead for Music City’s first WordCamp. An avid user advocate, Pam is decidedly NOT a developer, though she knows enough to find even the best themes frustrating and will, with adult supervisor, tiptoe into her site’s CSS to make wee edits. Familiarity with WordPress, in fact, helped Pam get over anxieties about using new technologies (especially with someone looking over her shoulder), and improved her skills as a content strategist. By understanding pieces of the puzzle, she bridges the gaps between users and developers as well as clients and their target audiences.
WP 101
Brandon Howard
Nashville, TN
Brandon Howard is a web designer & developer always looking for new ways to benefit the open source community. He strives to find unique ways to help small and start-up businesses with increasing their web presence in ways that meet their budget requirements, too.
Ross Jones
Nashville, TN
WP 102
An Adjunct Professor of Digital Marketing @ Belmont University, Ross Jones is the founder of the 1000+ member Nashville SEO Group which meets monthly to discuss all things related to online marketing.
Ross currently runs 2 the Top Web Design & Marketing, an interactive agency specializing in websites and Internet Marketing. Ross’s speaking resume includes sessions on WordPress, Organic SEO, web strategy, analytics, affiliate marketing, Google AdSense and social media.
2 the Top Web Design & Marketing
@2theTopDesign
Ross Jones on G+