Profiles

Hiking, Mindfulness, Jazz, Hip Hop, storytelling, and the creative process to make things that are thoughtful and beautiful.

Joe’s journey within WordPress has two distinct branches, before and after a heart event in the spring of 2017.

Back in 2010, when Metro LA’s Lead Developer and CSS Goddess both left to pursue other opportunities, Joe inherited a Headway-themed design (sans child theme) and the rest is history, fourteen years later. He manages a blog network consisting of dozens of project-specific or transit news sites gaining experience in both the WordPress VIP, WordPress.com, and self-hosting environments.

During a leave of absence to recover, Joe decided to focus primarily on doing things that brought him joy. The kindness and welcoming experiences with people in the WordPress Community were one of those things that helped him heal emotionally and physically.

From this point forward, this branch’s highlights are:
– Attended his first WordPress Meetup;
– Volunteered for WordCamp Los Angeles;
– Attended over 50 WordPress Meetups;
– Started to WordPress Meetups in Santa Clarita;
– Organized three WordCamp Santa Clarita Valleys, the first WordCamp north of LA and south of San Francisco since 2014;
– Co-founded BlackPress;
– Participated in three WordCamp panels on Diversity, Inclusion, and Growing Meetups
– Part of the Lead Sextet organizing WordCamp US 2023;
– Communications Team Captain for WordCamp US 2022;
– Served as either volunteer, speaker, or organizer at over 40 WordCamps including WordCamp Asia; and
– Currently Team Representative for Make WordPress Accessible.