Andrea Middleton, WordPress Community Organizer

Jill's work has done a lot to further the diversity and inclusion effort in WordPress. I would heartily recommend her. The initiative she helped develop has already had a powerful impact on WordPress communities.

Read full letter from Andrea

Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal + CTO, Founder, Chairman at Acquia, Inc

Helping someone see that their expertise is valuable is the kind of support we need to drive meaningful change. Jill Binder's expertise has driven major speaker diversity improvements. Blog post

Matt Mullenweg, Co-founder, WordPress; CEO, Automattic

Automattic is sponsoring Jill Binder’s work on the WordPress Diverse Speakers Training Group. I would love to see the WordPress contributor base become more diverse, and training people from marginalized communities to speak at WordCamps is a great way to help that along. Read Matt's blog post

Terrance,

“Before taking the workshops, I didn’t have the confidence for public speaking. Thanks to these sessions, I can relax, gather my thoughts, and proceed with my presentation. I would recommend this workshop to people of color in the WordPress ecosystem. You belong here; it's a no-judgment zone where you can find your authentic voice.”

Time,

“This workshop series was well worth my time. I could actually feel myself shift into a ‘speaker mindset.’ I can apply for better jobs in WordPress now!”

Maryl,

“LOVED the #WPDiversity Workshop! It really inspired me to bring this type of content to the WordPress Mexico community and bring more diverse groups into speaking at our Meetups and WordCamps. ¡Muchas gracias!”

Kirsten, Web Developer, Vancouver

It had never occurred to me before that I had anything worthwhile to offer the WordPress community. Through the workshop, I saw that I had been underestimating my experience and perspective, and I became comfortable and confident about speaking on a topic I felt would be of interest to others.

Nichole Betterley, 2017 WordCamp Seattle Speaker Wrangler

The Diversity Speaker training workshops we ran at local meetups using Jill’s material were highly successful and helped us achieve an unprecedented 60% of women speakers that year. I highly recommend it to anyone who is conscientious of encouraging more women and other diverse groups to speak at technical events.

Simona Simionato, WordCamp Milan Italy organizer 2018

At WordCamp Milan 2017, we had only 4 women out of 19 speakers. After we ran the workshop as well did some personal outreach, in 2018 45% of applications were made by women and there were 11 women out of 21 speakers! One of them was also an LGBT community member. The workshop helped people find the strength needed to overcome the fear of speaking in public, and helped folks find topics – solving the “I do not know what to say” issue.

Kathryn Presner, Theme Whisperer/Happiness Engineer at Automattic, Montreal

Jill Binder’s diversity work paved the way for the public speaking workshop I developed with my colleagues at Automattic. I’m really excited to see Jill expanding her diversity work and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to broaden their speaker rosters or other professional pathways.

Morgan Kay, Founder of WordPress Study Group for Women, Seattle

I can attest that Jill’s workshops are very effective at getting a much more diverse speaker pool. I highly recommend Jill and her work to anyone who is trying to increase diversity at their conference or event.

Angela Jin, Community Organizer at Automattic

I’ve really enjoyed the work we do in the WordPress Diverse Speaker Training group, and can see its impact. It is super inspirational!

Nicolas Demers, Web Developer, Vancouver, Gay

Before Jill’s workshop I did not think I had it in me to speak in front of a crowd. But she gave me the confidence and tools to get on that stage and deliver a well-received presentation. I would recommend Jill to anyone looking to push the envelope and do things you never believed possible.