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Courtney Robertson

Open Source Developer Advocate, WordPress Teacher

@courane01 Chambersburg, PA USA joined Apr 2009

courtneyr.dev github.com/courtneyr-dev Slack: @Courtney

    Bio

    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.

    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.

    Interests

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

    WordPress Origin Story

    In 2006, I stumbled upon open-source software while teaching high school business, computer, and information technology. I was on the hunt for tools that could serve as an extension of my classroom. That’s when I discovered WordPress as the perfect solution for a blog for my students.

    The four freedoms of open source, granted by the GPL, caught my attention and got me thinking about the potential of a new societal framework. As a teacher, it was crucial to have access to no-cost licenses for classroom use. On top of that, most of the software I used never let me peek at their code to study how they worked.

    During my early years with WordPress, I found that documentation was pretty scarce. There were no handy five-minute installs back then! While I was comfortable teaching HTML and CSS, PHP was uncharted territory for me. I knew how to work with databases and write queries, but PHP code remained a mystery. It took me years to decipher the code and find helpful training materials. My initial challenge was registering sidebars to add widgets to a website using the Revolution theme, but soon, I became hooked on enhancing WordPress.

    Fast forward to 2009, and I found myself attending two WordCamps. WordCamp Mid-Atlantic had just sold out of tickets, but I was eager to be there. I offered to volunteer at the event and ended up checking attendees in at the door, which turned out to be an amazing networking opportunity. A few months later, I attended WordCamp NYC, where I had the chance to chat with Matt Mullenweg.

    In 2014, I was back at WordCamp NYC, this time participating in the contributor day. Although I felt intimidated by the discussions about the upcoming REST API, I decided to join the Marketing or Training teams. Having taught marketing as part of business education, I was torn but ultimately settled with the Training team. I learned how to keep attending meetings and began writing lesson plans on using post formats, later adding theme support and designs for developers. By 2015, I became a team rep.

    Early in 2016, I had the fantastic opportunity to teach WordPress at a vocational career technical school for high school students. We built and modified websites, and students were assessed through projects and quizzes using WordPress as a learning management system (LMS). They learned to install plugins, rate and review them, and tweak the code to suit their needs. We also experimented with multiple themes.

    Later, I joined The Events Calendar, working in support and marketing release communications. I managed the knowledgebase, product pages, and staff training on release changes. While creating technical documents, I got to test new features and report any bugs I found to the developers.

    In the spring of 2020, I found myself teaching WordPress in a high school classroom once again. My students were paid interns learning to build websites, and they even presented at WordCamp Philly that summer. I continued with the same bootcamp, instructing a front-end developer curriculum that covered HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Git, and WordPress. However, I still felt a need for better educational materials and standards for bootcamps funded by government organizations. I knew I needed to get closer to the source.

    By 2022, I joined GoDaddy as a Developer Advocate. Now, my work involves contributing to Training and other teams, advocating for WordPress as open source software, sponsoring events, and communicating with developer-oriented customers and our internal developer staff.

    My WordPress journey has taken many twists and turns over the years, but it’s helped me acquire the skills I need for my current role. I’m passionate about onboarding contributors and supporting people at all skill levels in achieving their goals. Collaborating across teams and with friends around the globe is what makes it all worthwhile.

    Badges

    CODE
    6 badges
    Core Contributor '21 Core Team '23 Meta Contributor '21 Meta Team '21 Pattern Author '22 Plugin Developer
    CONTENT
    3 badges
    Marketing Contributor '21 Photo Contributor '22 WordPress.tv Contributor '23
    COMMUNITY
    3 badges
    Community Contributor '24 WordCamp Speaker '14 WordCamp Volunteer '25
    PRACTICE
    5 badges
    Support Contributor '26 Sustainability Contributor '24 Test Contributor '21 Training Contributor '19 Training Team '20

    Current Job

    Open Source Developer Advocate, WordPress Teacher
    Present

    Recent impact

    Score weights high-impact work (commits, releases, approved translations, props) at 3x routine activity.

    Last 30 days
    22contributions
    high20
    medium2
    score62
    Last 90 days
    37contributions
    high32
    medium5
    score101
    Last 12 months
    88contributions
    high64
    medium24
    score216

    WordPress releases

    Contributed to 13 releases
    • 7.1
    • 7.0
    • 6.9
    • 6.8
    • 6.7
    • 6.6
    • 6.5
    • 6.4
    • 6.3
    • 6.1
    • 6.0
    • 5.9
    • 5.8

    Time commitment

    10 hours per week
    • On my own time 10 hrs/wk

    Contributions

    Type
    August 2026
    Aug 31 Mon · 21:05
    Forums med
    Posted a reply to 2.0.2 — From name double-quoted w 3rd party plugin, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    You've diagnosed this correctly. I checked the 2.0.2 source and can confirm it, with one…
    Aug 31 Mon · 20:11
    Forums med
    Posted a reply to Version 6.8.2 is breaking my sites, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    Rolling back should be safe: the recent security hardening shipped in 6.8.1, and 6.8.2 adds…
    Aug 22 Sat · 03:14
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659841] to Plugins SVN:
    Tag 1.7.0
    Aug 22 Sat · 03:13
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659840] to Plugins SVN:
    Release 1.7.0: four new kinds (chicken, comics, collection, presentation), filterable kind icons, Play Card block styles, full-kind Micropub classification, and a fix for the book-lookup publish failure
    Aug 21 Fri · 17:50
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659469] to Plugins SVN:
    Tag 1.6.0
    Aug 21 Fri · 17:50
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659468] to Plugins SVN:
    Release 1.6.0: optional Standard.site publishing via the ATmosphere companion plugin, docs coverage fixes, upgrade notices
    Aug 21 Fri · 13:33
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659105] to Plugins SVN:
    Tagging 1.5.2
    Aug 21 Fri · 13:33
    Plugins high
    Committed [3659104] to Plugins SVN:
    the plugin never loads no longer ships.
    Aug 21 Fri · 04:03
    Plugins high
    Committed [3658086] to Plugins SVN:
    Tagging 1.5.1
    Aug 21 Fri · 04:02
    Plugins high
    Committed [3658085] to Plugins SVN:
    appear on the next request of any kind.

    Developer

    3 plugins

    Support Rep

    1 plugin

    Photos

    52 contributions

    View all 52 photos in the Photo Directory

    Completed courses

    8 completed

    *Course is no longer available.

    Browse courses on Learn WordPress

    Plugins

    250 favorites