Stephen Lazi Akhere, PhD: Website

Overview

A personal website for Stephen Lazi Akhere, PhD, built on WordPress with Elementor and hosted on cPanel. The brief was a fast turnaround that didn't feel like a generic template, so I started from a modern base, the Mokko WordPress template, and pushed it well past its defaults with hand-written CSS. It went beyond a brochure site in two ways: because he's a PhD holder, his research had to live on the site, so I converted his PDF materials into a proper on-site publications archive rather than loose downloads; and his Spreaker feed is embedded and linked so his audio plays on the site itself instead of sending visitors off-platform.

Challenges

Ship a polished, on-brand site on a short timeline, and make it more than a brochure. A modern template got the shell most of the way there, but it still needed custom CSS so it didn't read as off-the-shelf, a live Spreaker integration, and a way to turn a stack of academic PDFs into browsable, first-class publications on the site.

Approach

• Modern base, custom finish: Started from the Mokko WordPress template for a contemporary layout, then re-skinned it with hand-written CSS so the finished site reads as bespoke rather than off-the-shelf.
• Publications, not downloads: Converted his PDF materials into an on-site publications archive so his research reads as a first-class part of the site (fitting for a PhD holder) instead of scattered file links.
• Audio front-and-centre: Embedded and linked his Spreaker so episodes play directly on the site.
• Self-serve: Built in Elementor so Stephen can update pages himself without touching code.

Stack

• Platform: WordPress + Elementor on the Mokko template, extended with custom CSS.
• Hosting: Deployed and configured on cPanel.

Results / Conclusion

A clean, self-serve site delivered on time: modern rather than templated, with his audio playing on-page and his academic work presented as a proper publications archive. Stephen can maintain all of it himself.