{"id":6,"date":"2014-12-16T21:58:09","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2015.maine.wordcamp.org\/speakers\/"},"modified":"2015-04-17T14:58:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T14:58:21","slug":"speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/maine.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAndre Gagnon\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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WordPress Web Developer, Runner, Organic Farmer, Craft Beer Enthusiast.<\/p>\n

@andygagnon<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0andregagnon.com<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCameron Barrett\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Cameron (@camworld) pioneered the blog format in the late 1990s. He’s built web sites for presidential candidates, the U.S. Army, the World Economic Forum and led the migration of 70+ web sites from a proprietary SaaS to WordPress for NJ’s largest public school district. He\u2019s now migrating all 14,000+ U.S. public school districts to WordPress, saving millions of taxpayer dollars. He hails from Northern Michigan and currently lives outside of NYC with his family.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCaroline Moore\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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I\u2019m a designer and theme developer, working as a Theme Wrangler for Automattic, where I help to build and maintain themes for WordPress.com. In my spare time, I dabble in illustration, photography, and writing. I hail from Maine where I live with my husband, our two daughters, our puppy, and three crazy cats.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDerek Smart\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Derek started his WordPress career as a small business freelancer. He met a group of bearded madmen at a WP meetup in Maine, and helped this unruly group build BruteProtect<\/a> while handling large-scale client work for HCG<\/a>. He is now full-time at Automattic<\/a>, proudly developing on the Jetpack<\/a>\u00a0team.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDoug Vanderweide\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Doug Vanderweide is Robot Overlord\u00a0for the Portland Press Herald, whose roles include putting all kinds of external data into the newspaper’s many WordPress sites. He’s developed with WordPress for 10+ years. His main gig is designing and building middleware, data pipelines and automated systems.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGary Thayer\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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As a WordPress Developer at Hall Internet Marketing, Gary builds custom solutions for clients by combining the power of WordPress with Hall\u2019s own internally developed tools. With a strong background in HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, SASS and responsive frameworks, Gary is passionate about providing simple and elegant solutions for complex problems.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJennifer Ecker\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Jen is a principal and the creative director of shines & jecker labs, a web development firm in Portland. She has over 12 years of experience in digital design, doing everything from creating original graphic design to writing CSS. Her strength is her ability to master the latest technologies quickly to provide clients with modern, current designs. Jen spends her free time reading, running, and serving on the board for her local library.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Brandt\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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John E Brandt, M.S.Ed., is the Training\/Operations Coordinator at the Maine CITE Coordinating Center, Maine’s Assistive Technology (AT) Act program.\u00a0 Brandt has been a consultant specializing in area of accessibility and information technology and has run his own web design business for more than 15 years. Brandt has also worked in the area of education and professional development for many years.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Eckman\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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After a first career as an academic, John\u2018s been working in digital agencies for the last 15 years, and with WordPress for the last 8. He has been one of the organizers for WordCamp Boston since 2010, and is the CEO of 10up<\/a>. He grew up in Richfield, MN but now lives in Salem MA with his wife and dogs. He blog is Open Parenthesis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKathryn Presner\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Kathryn<\/a> thrives on helping people\u00a0get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building\u00a0websites for clients, she joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer in\u00a02012. She\u2019s currently Theme Whisperer on the Theme Team<\/a>, where she helps folks\u00a0with customization, configuration, and troubleshooting. She enjoys\u00a0spreading her passion for WordPress at grassroots events like WordCamps, Girl Geeks, and Ladies Learning Code, and also loves encouraging new public speakers.<\/a>\u00a0Non-WordPress obsessions include vintage Pyrex mixing bowls and\u00a0growing garlic.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKatie Okolita\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Katie fondly remembers her childhood spent building GeoCities websites.\u00a0 From that initial interest over fifteen years ago grew a passion for producing efficient websites, which has led her to work with such international clients as CVS Caremark, CitiBank and the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Having professionally worked with WordPress for more than seven years, Katie Okolita has time and time again found the WordPress community, and efforts around it, second-to-none.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Soule\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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As an SEO Analyst with Hall Internet Marketing, Mary researches and implements clients\u2019 organic search marketing campaigns. She is responsible for aligning site optimization strategy with business goals and objectives. Before starting her career in web marketing in 2013, Mary studied anthropology at Colby College and taught in South Korea and Thailand. She strives to prove anthropology majors can make outstanding web marketers, contributing unique analytical perspectives and honed writing skills to their respective workplaces.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMel Choyce\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Mel is a Design Engineer at Automattic and WordPress core contributor based out of Boston. She loves big type, cold brew coffee, and printmaking.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMendel Kurland\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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As an outdoor enthusiast, Mendel<\/a> loves backpacking, camping, gourmet coffee, and prototyping new web apps. From scrappy beginnings as an entrepreneur and Web consultant for local businesses, he found his way to corporate America as a developer, marketer, and inventor. As a GoDaddy Evangelist, he spends his time hanging out with developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and web pros around the world and making sure their opinions and suggestions are heard.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Cain\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Michael is a Portland, Maine-based Theme Generator for Automattic\u2018s Theme Team. He spends his days creating, converting, and improving the theme experience on both WordPress.com and WordPress.org, his evenings blogging about food and travel on mapandmenu.com<\/a>, and his nights dreaming about how to make tomorrow\u2019s WordPress blogs and sites even better.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMike DeWitt\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Mike DeWitt is currently a front end developer at Buildium, a Boston-based SaaS company specializing in software for property managers.\u00a0 As a member of the marketing team, he works with WordPress daily on various marketing campaigns for\u00a0buildium.com<\/a>, in addition to contributing to the company’s core application.\u00a0 Originally from Chicago, Mike has two degrees in music performance and lives just south of Boston in Quincy with his girlfriend, ugly cat and twin yorkies, Wilbur and Wendy.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRC Lations\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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RC heads up product development at\u00a0WetPaint<\/a>, planning & building marketing tools for WordPress. A developer turned project manager, RC uses his agency experience working in WordPress as a basis to find new ways to build data and insight tools. He also rides a Stella scooter and finds business jargon hilarious.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSarah C. Hines\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Sarah is a principal and technical lead at shines & jecker labs, a web development firm. Her 17 years in web development allow her to empathetically explain technical components to non-geeks so they understand what they\u2019re making a decision about. Behind the scenes, she\u2019s programming and managing the servers. With clients, she starts conversations with her good-humored, energetic approach and brings pragmatic new ideas to the table while keeping client budgets and goals in check.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tScott Taylor\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Scott Taylor is a Senior Software Engineer at The New York Times on the Interactive News Team. He is a Core Developer of WordPress and will be the Release Lead for WordPress 4.4. Scott lives in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, not Colonial) and really likes Mexican food. Scott is mainly a musician, but he also finds time to code and has contributed in small and big ways to the last 10 releases of WordPress.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTBD\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTom Shapiro\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Tom Shapiro is Founder and CEO of Stratabeat, a marketing, branding and design agency. Services include WordPress website design & development, marketing strategy, branding, SEO, paid search, content, conversion optimization, PR and display advertising. Through the years, Tom has developed digital strategies for various market leaders, such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Kraft Foods and P&G. Tom\u2019s insights on websites, UX and marketing have been published in CMO.com, CNN.com, iMedia Connection, MarketingProfs, MediaPost, Search Marketing Standard, Website Magazine and others.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTrevan Hetzel\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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Trevan Hetzel is a front-end developer with a background in design and adaptive layouts. He lives in Glenwood, Iowa with his wife, Katie, and two young boys, Ryder and Reid. Outside of his job at Flywheel as a front-end engineer, Trevan spends his nights and weekend designing, developing and selling client websites and tinkering with the latest technologies.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tXiao Yu\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t
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After an existential crisis and a stint working as an apprentice brewer Xiao realized he rather enjoyed working with bits as long as there was a purpose. He now wrangles data at Automattic in hopes of making the internet a better & more democratic place. He still enjoys brewing beer and attempts to run up mountains in his spare time.<\/p>\n

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