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. @zoonini
What’s been your best experience with WordPress?
I get tremendous enjoyment from helping WordPress users make their sites look like and do exactly what they want. Whether it’s as a volunteer in the WordPress.org forums, in person at a Happiness Bar, or in my daily work as a Happiness Engineer, helping people one-on-one with WordPress is so satisfying.
Tell us a bit about your WordCamp Halifax talk.
Customizing a site with CSS is powerful – but can seem intimidating if you’re new to it. After a CSS refresher, I’ll walk you through the basics of using CSS to make changes like modifying text size and colour or hiding elements in a theme. We’ll look at a few examples together and see how useful – and how much fun – CSS can be.
What’s your favourite thing about attending WordCamps?
I love reconnecting with old WordPress friends and making new ones.
Recommend one to three people in the WordPress world to follow on social media!
I’ve been needing some humour on Twitter these days, so I’ll mention my colleagues Alex Shiels (https://twitter.com/tellyworth), Elizabeth Urello (https://twitter.com/eurello), and Christopher Finke (https://twitter.com/cfinke), who always make me laugh.
If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?
The ability to make cats bend to my will. Cuddles when *I* want them, dangit.