Kristen Pol grew up as the youngest sister to five brothers in a small town in rural Central California. After high school and a few community colleges, she earned a BA degree in mathematics and physics at UC Santa Cruz in 1994 and an MSEE at Stanford University in 1995. After college, she worked as a Systems Engineer at Hewlett Packard and then as a Java Application Architect at a web consulting company in downtown Santa Cruz, California, during the dot-com boom.

She started her own software business in 2001. Initially, she focused on Java applications, but in 2004 Drupal changed her life. Starting with version 4, she got hooked on Drupal development and now she focuses pretty much exclusively on Drupal and search engine optimization (SEO). She works with a wide variety of clients throughout North America. She enjoys working on challenging websites that require custom programming. Some of her more notable Drupal projects include boomboomcards.com (social kindness game), naturebridge.org (non-profit bringing kids to nature), thesoundpost.com (Canadian classical instrument shop), and boomerangproject.com (school transition programs).

She is very active in the Drupal community. She has authored contributed modules including Featured Content and SEO Friend, regularly attends the Santa Cruz Drupal user group meetings, improves drupal.org documentation, gives talks at Drupal camps and events, and helps out on the Drupal forums and issue queues. When she's not doing Drupal, she enjoys photography, travel, hiking, and spending time with her husband and two sons in beautiful Santa Cruz. Feel free to contact her at kristen.org/contact.