Organizers

Ryan is a web strategist at Orbit Media Studios. Before joining the company and becoming an Orbiteer, Ryan founded Internet Marketing Chicago, a web design, development, and digital marketing company in Chicago. His passion is learning about different digital operations and applying them to Orbit’s success. His skills are rooted in analysis, strategy, problem solving and mobilizing all parties involved around the accomplishment of the objectives.

He brings years of experience with WordPress to Orbit, ranging from speaking at and organizing WordCamps to building and marketing successful enterprise websites. Ryan is the current lead organizer for both WordCamp Chicago and Startup Weekend Chicago.

Heather is an agency owner and developer in Chicago. She gets her kicks from engineering brilliant and efficient solutions for her clients using WordPress. She organizes WordCamp Chicago and speaks at learning-focused events around the midwest. In her personal time she enjoys losing to her kids at Skip-Bo, eating avocados, and listening to jam bands.

Joshua has been helping organize WordCamps since 2012. He has spoke at WordCamp Chicago and Milwaukee. He owns Promotional Science, Inc a development company that specializes in catering to other marketing and tech companies. He currently working on two Doctorate degrees in Business and Computer Science.

Emily is a tech librarian at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she offers managed WordPress hosting and training to faculty, staff, and student organizations. She has been a volunteer organizer/photographer/social media coordinator for WordCamp Chicago since 2011 and enjoys applying those skills for a variety of community projects and organizations.

Becky has been helping organize Chicago WordCamps in one way or another since 2011. She runs Becky Davis Development and specializes in custom theme development, project management and training for her clients. She is the organizer for the Northside WordPress meetup  and is proud to be starting her 6th year. At home she enjoys old movies, gardening, knitting and a good sipping whiskey.

Andy Nathan has been attending WordCamps since 2012. He has spoken at WordCamp Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. He is the founder of Smart At The Start and also works full-time creating lead generation campaigns and social media marketing. As a blogger and social media expert, he appreciates the ability to disseminate copy without knowing code. However, his HTML skills are vastly improved. Woo hoo!

Clare has been enjoying WordPress since 2010. She works mostly in the backend, developing custom themes and plugins for specific requirements. Her small web shop focuses on easily maintained, robust websites for nonprofits. Clare is a co-organizer of the WordPress Naperville Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Naperville/). When not camped out in front of a laptop, Clare enjoys tabletop roleplaying, native gardening, and running outdoors in all weather.

Anthony recently relocated to Chicago after ten years in the DC/Baltimore area where he has been organizing meetups, WordCamps, and other conferences in addition to speaking. He’s been using WordPress since 1.0 Miles Davis and is a long-time participant in the community. As a contributor, he’s a newer member of the Training team, helping to draft WordPress training materials for classrooms around the world.

Andrew Wikel is a WooCommerce ninja at Automattic. He is committed to open source values and loves working with WordPress. He fell in love with WordPress in 2008, and has been working with it in some capacity since then. A husband, a father, a WordCamp addict, a coffee snob, lover of shiny things, and a California native living in Illinois.