Today we are featuring Winstina Hughes. Black people in WordPress are consistently building, designing, and moving the open source project forward. In this series, we highlight members of the BlackPress Slack channel who are doing amazing things with WordPress.
What do you do? What are you passionate about?
Art will be my hobby when I slow my pace. Drawing, painting, and creating sculptures out of clay and cloth in high school gave me life while my extra curricular activities in law filled me with passion. I made a portfolio for FIT at the same time as I put together my college application for Rutgers. Reflecting, it’s natural I chose drawing and painting as my undergrad electives. I haven’t drawn or painted since, but I’m not parting with my oil paint, drawing paper and charcoal from those classes.
How and when did you get started with WordPress?
My first memorable experience with the WordPress community is when I presented at Steve Bruner’s WPNYC Meetup. I was terrified and my presentation bombed. Yet, here I am.
How do you use WordPress?
My personal website is built on WordPress, and Sponsor Inclusion in Tech will be built on WordPress, too.
How has the WordPress software or community helped you to grow or helped you accomplish a goal?
I grew from the experience of leading WordCamp NYC (WCNYC) in 2018. I know I can manage a $100k budget and deliver on a high profile project. That’s empowering. I worked with a 18 wonderful individuals to plan the event. We made a great team. These individuals continue to inspire me.
What is something you’d like to do or build with WordPress in the future?
My future contribution to WordPress will be assisting our community in reducing barriers to the full inclusion of underrepresented/minority speakers by removing the financial cost to participating in WordCamp programming. This contribution will be called Sponsor Inclusion in Tech.
