Courtney Robertson (@courane01) – WordPress user profile

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.

Contributions Sponsored

GoDaddy sponsors Courtney Robertson to contribute 35 hours per week to the following teams: Community, Core, Documentation, Marketing, Meta, Sustainability, TV, Test, and Training.

Member Since: April 14th, 2009
Location: Chambersburg, PA USA
Website: courtneyr.dev
GitHub: courtneyr-dev
Job Title: Open Source Developer Advocate, WordPress Teacher
Employer: GoDaddy
Find me on:

Contribution History

Community Contributor
Core Contributor
Core Team
Marketing Contributor
Meta Contributor
Meta Team
Pattern Author
Photo Contributor
Plugin Developer
Sustainability Contributor
Test Contributor
Training Contributor
Training Team
WordCamp Speaker
WordPress.tv Contributor

Activity
Plugins
Photos
Courses
Favorites

Wrote a new post, Agenda for October 1, 2024, on the site Make WordPress.org:
👋🏻 Intro/Welcome 🆕 News Meta news The Five for the Future site gets a refresh…
2 days ago
Received props from @davidbaumwald in Slack:
Props to@desrosj, @marybaum, @robert-biswas, @wpnoman0, @cyberorca, @courane01, @narenin, @wildworks, @kirasong, @olivierlafleur, @sc0ttkclark, @Ankit K Gupta,…
3 days ago
Mentioned in [59150] on Core SVN:
Bundled Themes: Follow up import of Twenty Twenty-Five.
3 days ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @rabmalin and @eherman24 for slicing the plugin review queue by 300 in the…
5 days ago
Wrote a comment on the post WordCamp US 2024 Marketing Discussion, on the site Team Updates:
+make.wordpress.org/marketing/
2 weeks ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp US 2024 Marketing Discussion, on the site Team Updates:
During WordCamp US 2024, @illuminea (Miriam Schwab) facilitated an open discussion rethinking how to market…
2 weeks ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp US 2024, on the site Team Updates:
Nearly three dozen groups/teams will gather for WordCamp US 2024 Contributor Day. Below, you can…
3 weeks ago
Wrote a comment on the post WordPress Contribution Health Dashboards: An Experiment, on the site WordPress.org Project:
Thanks Damon, and thank you for all the ways you contribute to Make WordPress too.…
3 weeks ago
Wrote a new post, Agenda for September 4, 2024, on the site Make WordPress.org:
👋🏻 Intro/Welcome 🆕 News Meta news https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2024/07/24/wordcamp-us-contributor-day/ General #7740 WordPress.org Admin bar: A11y feedback -…
4 weeks ago
Wrote a comment on the post WordCamp US Contributor Day, on the site Make WordPress.org:
No :) I've reached out to the teams for table leads in my other role…
2 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @Clorith for help organizing a list of GitHub repos for #sustainability stats/dashboards
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Agenda for August 7, 2024, on the site Make WordPress.org:
👋🏻 Intro/Welcome 🆕 News Meta news 🏗️ Projects Are there any new projects in Meta…
2 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Update: Meetup Reactivation and Closures, on the site Make WordPress Community:
I wonder as well about other locales. Even within the States, notorious for not taking…
2 months ago
Assigned as a presenter on the Learn WordPress tutorial, ব্লক এডিটরে লিস্ট ভিউের ব্যবহার:
ব্লক এডিটরে লিস্ট ভিউ আপনাকে কন্টেন্টের লেয়ার এবং নেস্টেড ব্লকের মধ্যে নেভিগেট করতে সাহায্য করে।…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp US Contributor Day, on the site Make WordPress.org:
WordCamp US will take place on September 17th, 2024! In preparation for the day, we’d…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Agenda for July 24, 2024, on the site Make WordPress.org:
👋🏻 Intro/Welcome 🆕 News Meta news 🏗️ Projects: Anything new? WCUS Contributor Day Website Redesign…
2 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @hellofromTonya for running the release party
2 months ago
Received props from @hellofromTonya in Slack:
Props to @audrasjb, @afragen, @beryldlg, @courane01, @davidbaumwald, @jdy68, @jigar9998, @jorbin, @krupajnanda, @wplmillet, @matteoenna, @mukesh27, @narenin,…
2 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @japh for resolving access on https://github.com/WordPress/Security-White-Paper
2 months ago
Created issue #4 in the WordPress/block-course-theme repository:
Organizing repos
2 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post The Crowdstrike disaster is good…, on the site Make WordPress Core:
+1
2 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post The Crowdstrike disaster is good…, on the site Make WordPress Core:
How OpenSSF Scorecards Can Help WordPress The CrowdStrike disaster serves as a crucial reminder for…
2 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @hellofromTonya for facilitating the 6.6.1 rc1 release party :tada:
3 months ago
Received props from @hellofromTonya in Slack:
Props to @davidbaumwald @jorbin @eboxnet @courane01 @malgra for helping to test the 6.6.1 RC1 release…
3 months ago
Mentioned in [58751] on Core SVN:
Block Themes: Avoid specificity bump for top-level element-only selectors.
3 months ago
Mentioned in [58749] on Core SVN:
Block Themes: Avoid specificity bump for top-level element-only selectors
3 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @raqueLandefeld for supporting tests related to 6.6.1
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Localization and translation of HelpHub – Meeting notes, on the site Team Updates:
Could we rename it to PolyGlots Multilingual Working Group as it impacts more teams than…
3 months ago
Received props from @meher in Slack:
Props to @zunaid321 @jigar9998 @eboxnet @tremidkhar @Benjamin_Zekavica @noruzzaman @czapla @courane01 @benjamingosset @beryldlg @threadi @shailu25 @Toro_Unit…
3 months ago
Assigned as a presenter on the Learn WordPress tutorial, কিভাবে লো-কোড ব্লক প্যাটার্ন তৈরি করবেন:
আপনি কি আপনার নিজের ওয়ার্ডপ্রেস ব্লক প্যাটার্ন তৈরি করতে এবং আপনার সাইটের বিভিন্ন স্থানে এটি…
3 months ago
Pull request #59 merged into WordPress/blueprints:
Beta-rc blueprint shared in the release notes now in the Blueprints demo...
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post What would you like to see in the next default WordPress theme?, on the site Make WordPress Core:
Proposal for Including Post Formats in Twenty Twenty Five 🎯 Introduction The upcoming Twenty Twenty…
3 months ago
Wrote a new post, Meeting Agenda for July 10, 2024, on the site Make WordPress.org:
I am uncertain of my availability to host the meeting. I will be traveling to…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Let’s start testing Learn.WordPress.org, on the site Make WordPress Training:
+make.wordpress.org/test/
3 months ago
Received props from @meher in Slack:
Props to @shailu25 @hellofromTonya @gajendrasingh @jigar9998 @nhrrob @ajithrn @mikachan @pooja9712 @gwallace87 @zunaid321 @hmbashar @showravhasan @wplmillet…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post WordPress 6.7 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers, on the site Make WordPress Core:
I found the group think sessions we had about phrasing things during the early FSE…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post WordPress 6.7 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers, on the site Make WordPress Core:
I'd like to help again on the plugin dev email, and expand as well for…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post What would you like to see in the next default WordPress theme?, on the site Make WordPress Core:
+1
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post First-Time Attendees: A Key Metric of Success for WordPress Events, on the site Make WordPress Community:
Thank you for highlighting the importance of first-time attendees and the overall challenges we face…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Addressing Overlapping Initiatives and Improving Collaboration Across Teams, on the site Team Updates:
Some discussion occurred about the term sustainability being more broad than environmental sustainability. Let's look…
3 months ago
Submitted pull request #59 to WordPress/blueprints:
Beta-rc blueprint shared in the release notes now in the Blueprints demo...
3 months ago
Received props from @frantorres in Slack:
Props to @courane01 @eherman24 @coffee2code for preparing and sending the WP 6.6 release information email…
3 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props to @marybaum and @meher for their work on today's release party :tada:
3 months ago
Received props from @meher in Slack:
Props to @courane01 @shailu25 @desrosj @SergeyBiryukov @jigar9998 @rajinsharwar @rcorrales @moinrrahmed @voboghure @lumiblog @lakshmananphp @krupajnanda @rejaulalomkhan…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Addressing Overlapping Initiatives and Improving Collaboration Across Teams, on the site Team Updates:
+make.wordpress.org/sustainability/
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Proposal to integrate Slack workspaces from local WP Communities into Slack Enterprise Grid, on the site Make WordPress Community:
Within the “stats/dashboards” Contributor Sustainabilithy and Project Health work, we are reviewing tools that can…
3 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Training team testing GatherPress, on the site Make WordPress Training:
+make.wordpress.org/meta/
3 months ago
Wrote a new post, Meeting Agenda, on the site Make WordPress.org:
👋🏻 Intro/Welcome 🆕 News Projects Are there any new projects in Meta currently being worked…
3 months ago
Gave props in Slack:
Props @marybaum for all she is doing in MarComms on the 6-6 release. :clap:
3 months ago
Received props from @meher in Slack:
Props to @ajithrn @shailu25 @moinrrahmed @gajendrasingh @rcorrales @oglekler @matteoenna @jigar9998 @jdy68 @pooja9712 @DrewAPicture @beryldlg @dmsnell…
3 months ago