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OpenWest 2017 Core Team

Victor Villa
Organizer

Deven Fore
Co-Captain – HackCenter

Deven Fore has been a professional Software Engineer and Systems Administrator for more than eight years.  He has co-founded several technology-related communities, including HackSLC and the Transistor. Deven also volunteers time to many IT conferences including OpenWest, Blackhat, and BSidesSLC. He is responsible for the OpenWest HackCenter as well as many of the local electronic badge designs (including OpenWest’s electronic badges). He currently resides in Herriman with his lovely and very supportive wife, and an amazing son and daughter.  He’s happy to be contacted with questions or comments via email at deven[at]utos[dot]org.

Steve Meyers
Captain – Speaker Services

Steve Meyers has worked as a PHP and MySQL scalability expert for the last 16 years at such companies as Omniture (now part of Adobe), Spark Networks (owner of jDate.com), and CrimeReports. He now runs one of the largest independent online communities of college sports fans. When he’s not too busy with all of that and his responsibilities with Utah Open Source, he also runs the Provo Linux User Group.

Tyrel Kelsey
Captain – Attendee Services

Tyrel has been a member of the Core Team since 2011 running registration for the last 3 OpenWest conferences. Tyrel is a Web Engineer at 10up, and an organizer of UtahWP, a group that helps start WordPress meetups.

Zack Safer
Co-Captain – HackCenter

James Pope
Director – AV

Jill Hickman
Director – Aspirant Welcome

Learning new things help people continually grow and moving forward. Jill has been studying software development online since 2012. She started investigating different boot camps for a faster better alternative and finally decided that learning from the source was the best way. She signed up for the Udacity Android Nanodegree program that Google introduced in 2015. It was an immersive course with continuous code reviews and up to date current material. This course has brought her up to speed on building apps and starting her new career in mobile development.

Jill has a BS in Psychology from BYU. She keeps busy as an organizer for Girl Develop it (GDI) Provo chapter, running 5Ks, and trying new things, like genealogical work. She has worked as a freelance contractor working on Android apps and is now currently working on a personal app. She is an advocate for getting women and children involved in the tech field.

Jill Hickman lives in the heart of Silicon Slopes in Lehi, UT.

Megan Wilhite
Director – Information Technology

Mike Adams
Director – Volunteers

Pat Wright
Director – Social Events

Pat Wright has been working in Databases for the last 15 years.  He has worked in both large and small environments working with critical reporting needs and high transactional Database systems.  He has focused his time over the last 5 years on Big Data/No SQL solutions.  He has worked to build the data community in Utah since organizing the first Utah Code Camp back in 2006.  He is currently President of Utah Geek Events which organizes Utah Code Camp, Intermountain Big Data and assists with Sharepoint Saturday.  He also sits on the Core Team of Utah Open West conference.    

Tiffany Villa
Director – Operations

Tiffany Villa has been working as an Event Coordinator for Utah Open Source and the OpenWest Conference since January 2016.  She is currently a math student at UVU, and runs a free math lab for teenage girls, called STEMGirls. She leads a community for Women in Technology, hosting monthly lunches and other events to encourage women to network and build friendships. She is passionate about creating inclusive, diverse spaces for everyone in the tech community.  She can be contacted at tiffany[at]utos[dot]org. 

Tyler Johnson
Director – Intercollegiate Events

Tyler JohnSon gradUated from BYU in 2017 with a B.S. in ComPutEr EngineeRing. As a student he co-founded the BYU Linux Club. He has been a Core Team Member since 2016 and runs intercollegiate events. Tyler is currently a PQA Engineer at Control4 and enjoyS writing python and tinkering with miCRocontrollErs. You can find him on STeam, League of Legends, and IRC as “Akmod”.

OpenWest 2017 Interns

Meghan Betty
Social Media / Project Management

Meghan became part of the UTOS marketing team in March of 2017, although she had been volunteering with the organization since late 2016. She is currently a student at Brigham Young University studying International Relations. Before starting with UTOS, Meghan lived in Lima, Peru for over a year and found a love for helping others (and eating sketchy hamburgers from small carts on the side of the road). Meghan is excited to use that desire to help others to aid UTOS in all of its projects, and hopes to eventually start her own organization targeted at providing digital literacy classes to students in rural areas of Latin America (probably picking up a hamburger or two while she’s at it).

Elena D.
Web

Elena is a web development intern with the Utah Open Source Foundation, and developed multiple pages for the OpenWest website.  Mildly obsessed with cats. 

Corban V.