Speaker Spotlight: Kathryn Presner

Montrealer Kathryn Presner thrives on helping people get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building websites for clients, she joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer in 2012. She’s currently Theme Whisperer on the Theme Team, where she helps folks with customization, configuration, and troubleshooting. She enjoys spreading her passion for WordPress and encouraging new public speakers at WordCamps, Girl Geeks, Ladies Learning Code, and other grassroots events. Non-WordPress obsessions include vintage Pyrex mixing bowls and growing garlic.

Kathryn will be giving a workshop titled “Getting Comfortable With Child Themes“. She’ll also be on a panel titled “Contributing to WordPress


What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

Definitely the new image widget introduced with WP 4.8, which lets you choose an image from the Media Library instead of having to enter an image file path manually. The old image widget was confusing and difficult for people to use, so I was thrilled to see this improvement.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

I can’t imagine not speaking at my hometown WordCamp!

What is your talk going to be about?

My child theming session is a hands-on workshop for anyone who wants to learn how to create your first child theme. I’ll walk you through the process step-by-step, to get you more comfortable with child themes and help you better understand their potential.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

Child theming is not hard, you can do it!

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

This year I’m nominating three of my wonderful colleagues at Automattic who inspire me in different ways: Cate Huston, Ashleigh Axios, and Anne McCarthy.

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

I’ll answer this question a bit obliquely. I’m excited about the potential of Gutenberg to change the WordPress landscape and hope developers give it a chance and pitch in to make it the best it can be.

WordCamp Montréal 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!