Eleni Stergatou has been named the first recipient of the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship to attend WordCamp Europe in June 2025.

The scholarship, established in 2015 in memory of Kim Parsell—affectionately known as #wpmom—honors Parsell’s contributions to the WordPress community and her advocacy for women in tech. January 5 marked the 10th anniversary of Parsell’s death.

In previous years, the scholarship was awarded solely to women who were active contributors to WordPress and had never attended WordCamp US. However, in 2024, the WordPress Foundation announced an expansion of the scholarship to include WordCamp Europe and WordCamp Asia, ensuring that Parsell’s values of community, advocacy, and inclusivity continue to resonate on a global scale.

“Lena’s dedication to WordPress translations, core, plugins, and more truly embodies the values that Kim held dear,” the WordPress Foundation announced on its blog.

The scholarship will cover Stergatou’s travel to Basel, Switzerland, as well as hotel accommodation and her ticket to WordCamp Europe 2025 from June 5-7.

Stergatou said she was honored to be selected and wouldn’t have been able to attend WordCamp Europe without the foundation’s support.

“I have wanted to attend WordCamp Europe for so many years and to live the community atmosphere at the event. I’m looking forward to meeting people who I know only by their username and their work on WordPress projects (polyglots, core contributions, BuddyPress, etc.),” Stergatou said

“While our contributions — for me mostly translating in Greek and some plugins — are used be many people, we are, in fact, ‘lonely cowboys’ in front of our computer screens. I believe attending such an event, apart from its social aspects, will give me fresh ideas, insights about the latest WordPress trends, and the boost to continue contributing to open source projects.”

Known in the WordPress community as “lenasterg,” Stergatou has been a passionate contributor since 2008. She started her journey with WordPress MU (now WordPress Multisite) and has made significant contributions, particularly in Greek-language translations, through her work as a general translation editor for the Greek WordPress team.

According to the foundation’s announcement, Stergatou is committed to improving accessibility through translation, ensuring that Greek-speaking users can enjoy the full WordPress experience. She sees this work as not only a technical task but a way of fostering inclusivity and understanding across language barriers.

Stergatou lives in Patras, Greece, with her husband and two teenage children. With a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering and over 20 years of experience as a web developer, she currently works with the Computer Technology Institute (CTI Diophantus), where she develops web services for the Greek educational community.