To honour the memory of Kim Parsell, the WordPress Foundation established the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship to help carry forward Kim’s values of generosity, encouragement, inclusion, and community care. The scholarship supports an active woman contributor who has never attended WordCamp Europe before and would require financial assistance to do so.
This year, we are delighted to announce Lidia Marbán as the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship recipient for WordCamp Europe 2026.
A WordPress web designer, WordCamp organiser, speaker, mentor, and advocate for family-work balance at tech events, Lidia brings a story that wonderfully reflects the heart of this scholarship. Her journey with WordPress began during a time of professional reinvention, grew through the support of local meetups in Spain, and has since become a way of opening doors for others, especially women, mothers, and families who want to feel that they too belong in the WordPress community.
Ahead of WordCamp Europe 2026, we had a chance to speak with Lidia about what this scholarship. Her answers offer a moving reminder that WordPress is not only built through code, design, events, and documentation, but also through care, encouragement, and the people who make space for others to belong. Join our conversation.
Interview with Lidia Marban
What was your first reaction when you found out you had won?
I received the email during a particularly difficult time in my personal life. Several members of my family were hospitalized, and I was outside the hospital in a small park with my son, Áxel, waiting for my father to come down and take over caring for him.
Suddenly my phone rang signaling an email notification. When I read the message confirming my selection for the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship, I felt an overwhelming mix of emotion, joy and responsibility. Tears immediately filled my eyes. Not only because I was finally going to be able to attend WordCamp Europe, something I had always dreamed of, but because of what this scholarship represents within the WordPress community. It was a bittersweet moment, because given everything that was happening in my personal life at the time, I genuinely thought I might have to turn the scholarship down. And with that, lose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
For me, this is not just financial support. It is also a way of continuing Kim Parsell’s legacy and everything she stood for: inclusion, community and supporting others.
I remember Áxel noticing the tears in my eyes and asking why I was crying. I think it was probably the first time he had ever seen me cry. When I explained what had happened and told him we were going to a very big WordCamp far away — WCEU — he hugged me and said: “You’re not supposed to cry over good things. And don’t worry Mum, I’m coming with you.”
I think that moment will stay with me forever.
For community members meeting you for the first time, could you tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do?
I’m a WordPress web designer specializing in online shops, with a strong focus on psychomarketing and persuasive communication for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Before working in web design, I was an archaeologist. I discovered WordPress during a period of professional reinvention, and it completely changed my life. Thanks to open source, shared knowledge and the community itself, I was able to rebuild my professional path from scratch.
I currently work as a freelancer and also collaborate part-time with Fernando Tellado at AyudaWP as part of the web support and maintenance team.
Alongside that, I’ve been deeply involved in the WordPress community for many years as a meetup organiser, WordCamp organiser, event mentor and speaker at more than 25 WordCamps and WordPress-related events.
At the beginning, my main goal was to promote both open source values and WordPress itself, sharing knowledge and experiences while helping grow the local WordPress community through the meetup in Collado Villalba, where I live. I wanted those monthly meetups to become a gateway into a much bigger community.
But over time and especially after becoming a mother four years ago, a very important part of my work within the community has been advocating for family-work balance and for childcare at WordPress events, so that more families, especially mothers, can attend, participate and contribute without feeling they have to choose between parenting and being part of the community.
How did your journey with WordPress begin? What was your first contact with the community like?
My first contact with WordPress came through my father, who built websites with the CMS for his clients. At the time, I was coming from the world of archaeology and trying to start my own business.
Over time, I discovered not only the tool itself, but also the incredible human ecosystem behind it. And that was what truly drew me in.
My first experience with the community came through the WordPress meetups in Collado Villalba, near Madrid. I attended my very first meetup excited about finally meeting Fernando Tellado, one of the biggest Spanish-speaking WordPress references. But I also met Ana Cirujano there.
Even from that first meeting, I saw her as an outstanding professional in data-driven web design. It only took a few more meetups for me to realise she had become a huge role model for me, someone I deeply admired for her journey and her contribution to the WordPress and open source communities.
She was the person who encouraged me to give my first talks there, and she even brought me on board as a co-organiser of the Torrelodones meetup.
Ana reached out to me, opened the doors of an incredible community, trusted me and made me head of the speakers’ team, for the first WordCamp Torrelodones, and again for the following edition. She did this despite the fact that I was a single mother with a baby only a few months old, with everything that comes with that.
She told me not to worry because the WordCamp would have childcare available. She worked incredibly hard to ensure it was of quality service, and she reminded me that there is always a whole community behind you willing to help however they can.
She opened a door for me that I now want to keep open for other women, encouraging them to walk through it without fear.
What I have found at WordPress events is something very different from other professional or tech environments: people helping each other selflessly, sharing knowledge and building genuine community.
I think that is what makes WordPress so special. It is not just technology. It is belonging.
You’ve contributed to the WordPress community in many different roles, including meetup organiser, WordCamp organiser and event mentor, to name just a few. What part of your WordPress experience has been the most meaningful to you so far?
Without a doubt, seeing more people feel encouraged to participate in the community because they feel supported or represented.
Since I started attending WordCamps with my son when he was still a baby, I’ve spoken a great deal about family-work balance and the importance of having childcare available at these events, not as a luxury, but as a genuine inclusion tool.
Thanks to the efforts of many organising teams, more and more WordPress events in Spain now provide this service, and that has allowed many families to attend with peace of mind.
Over time, I’ve seen other mothers, fathers too, start attending events with their children after seeing me do it myself. Some people have written to me saying they thought they would never be able to attend a WordCamp again after becoming parent until they saw through our example that it actually was possible.
That has probably been the most meaningful part for me: helping, even in a small way, more people feel that they also have a place within the community.
Because I truly believe nobody should have to choose between raising a family and contributing.
What does attending WordCamp Europe mean to you personally? What are you most excited to experience at WordCamp Europe 2026?
Attending WordCamp Europe means a great deal to me. I’ve always seen it as something huge, almost like the great meeting point for the entire European WordPress community.
I’m incredibly excited to listen to other speakers and contributors who dedicate their time, effort and countless hours to sharing knowledge with the community in a completely selfless way. I find that deeply valuable, and it has all my respect.
I’m also very excited about meeting other families, organisers and contributors from different countries, sharing experiences and learning how inclusion and family-work balance are approached in other European WordPress communities.
And of course, I’m especially emotional about experiencing all of this alongside my son Áxel. It will be his 25th WordCamp at only four years old, but it will also be his very first flight and his first trip abroad. It makes me incredibly happy that he can grow up seeing spaces where people from different cultures, languages and countries collaborate together to build something shared.
I think that in itself is a beautiful lesson.
This year, WordCamp Europe is offering free professional childcare for all attendees. As a mother, what does it mean to take part in such an important event as WordCamp Europe with your family as part of the experience?
It means a great deal to me, because it proves that family-work balance can genuinely exist within professional and technology spaces. Very often, mothers feel they have to choose between continuing to grow professionally or fully dedicating themselves to raising their children.
Events like WordCamp Europe help show that both things can coexist. Having childcare available does not simply make the logistics easier. It also reduces mental load, anxiety and the feeling that you are “being a burden” or constantly needing to ask others for favours just to be able to attend an event. Especially in situations like mine, as a single mother, where I sometimes feel the lack of support and resources very strongly.
It also normalises something extremely important: families are part of the community too.
For us, WordCamps are not just conferences. They are experiences we share together. Áxel experiences these events with enormous excitement. He knows a lot of people within the community, wants to volunteer “like the grown-ups”, and even carries around his little camera because he says he is Nilo Vélez’s assistant on the photography team.
And honestly, seeing a child grow up in an environment built on collaboration, respect, diversity and community feels incredibly valuable to me.
What does this support mean to you at this point in your life and professional career?
It means so much. From a financial perspective, this scholarship allows me access to an experience that, as a single mother and freelancer, would be extremely difficult to afford. But beyond that, it also represents very meaningful recognition within a community to which I have dedicated years of time, energy and care.
It makes me feel that all the work I have done around community, inclusion and family-work balance truly has an impact and matters to other people. And it also gives me strength to continue helping, organising events, mentoring and working to make more people feel welcome within WordPress.
After WCEU, what would you like to bring back to the WordPress communities in Spain?
I would love to bring back ideas, lessons and experiences related to inclusion, family-work balance and family participation at tech events.
I want to learn how other European communities organise childcare services, what challenges they face and what strategies they use to make participation easier for families and members of underrepresented groups.
I would also like to help further highlight the importance of meetups as a gateway into the WordPress community. Meetups change lives. They are welcoming spaces where many people discover for the first time that they can learn, participate and contribute even if they are not experts.
And I would love to continue encouraging more people, especially women and mothers, not only to attend events, but also to give talks, organise and contribute actively themselves.
What message would you share with women and mothers who want to contribute to WordPress but have doubts?
I would tell them that they are not alone.
The WordPress community is full of people willing to help, support and reach out a hand. And although balancing motherhood, work and community can sometimes feel difficult, it is not impossible. You do not need to be perfect, know everything or have an ideal situation before you start participating.
Sometimes all it takes is one small step: attending a meetup, introducing yourself to other people, sharing knowledge or simply daring to show up.
For a long time, we have assumed that motherhood and professional development had to follow separate paths. But I genuinely believe nobody should have to choose between raising children and contributing.
And I hope this interview helps more women and mothers feel that they too have a place within the WordPress Community.
Meet Lidia in Kraków
As Lidia prepares to join us in Kraków, she carries with her years of contribution, care, and a deep belief that nobody should have to choose between raising a family and contributing to the community.
Please join us in congratulating and in welcoming Lidia and Áxel to WordCamp Europe 2026.