After a life-threatening heart event in 2017, Joe A Simpson Jr’s paradigm shifted. While on leave, he attended his first Meetup, volunteered for WordCamp Los Angeles, beginning a whirlwind of giving back to the WordPress community.
He spent the early part of his career with Fortune 500 brands as a designer in corporate identity groups at Unisys Corporation, Chrysler Corporation, and Metro Los Angeles, where he managed their WordPress network of websites.
Joe advocates for open, inclusive, and usable experiences in the WordPress open-source community. He contributed as a Team Rep on the Make WordPress Accessible Team, helped organize the first WordPress Accessibility Day, and a highlight was co-organizing the first WordCamp with a dedicated accessibility-specific track of 18 speakers over the weekend at WordCamp Santa Clarita.