The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 111, No. 3 - January 20, 2022
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
City Council..........................3
Classifieds............................6
Crossword/Sudoku.............6
Entertainment......................5
Legals............................11-13
Obituaries.............................2
Pets......................................16
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.............................. 3,10
Weekend
Forecast
Local Resident Takes It to Heart
to Give Back to the Community
Michelle Keldorf: A Leader Now,
and a Leader in the Future
By Duane Plank
Someone who knows El Segundo’s Michelle
Keldorf well highly touted Keldorf to be a
Herald profile candidate. Said she was “a rising
community STAR with a heart of gold, a
do-good, feel-good person, with real-life drive,
but most importantly, she puts steps behind her
drive and walks the walk,” emailed El Segundo
School Board member Dieema Wheaton. “I peg
her as one of our town’s future leaders. She
is smart, actively uses her talents and skills to
make a meaningful difference.”
Ryan Baldino works with Keldorf on the
El Segundo Planning Commission, a post that
Keldorf has held since 2018. Emailed Baldino:
“We are very lucky to have Michelle on our
Commission. She is incredibly smart and
dedicated. Her work experience in large multifamily
and commercial projects provides her
insight into the projects that come before the
Commission and allows her to ask important
questions. I am most impressed with Michelle’s
compassion. She cares a lot about our town. I
am grateful that someone as knowledgeable as
Michelle is willing to volunteer her time and
put the work in to help keep El Segundo this
special place that we call home.”
Kelsey Chittick is not on the Planning Commission
but has known Keldorf for more than
three decades, having met as middle-schoolers.
Chittick adds to the Keldorf story. “Michelle
has a deep desire to leave the world a better
place. She takes her time learning about issues,
problems, and people,” emailed Chittick,
“to see what she can learn and what different
ways she can impact growth and progress.
She takes her time learning about both sides
of the issue. She never jumps to conclusions
or makes emotional decisions.
“Michelle has always been very smart,” Chittick
continued, “but what I have seen in the
past ten years is her focus of wanting to give
back, to use her knowledge to help our town,
and leave the world better for our children. She
loves to talk to city leaders or residents about
small and large topics and always has time to
learn about what we can do next to make sure
our kids have the best experiences possible.”
Angela Damante has known Keldorf for a tad
bit shorter time than Chittick - like 30-some years
less. But Damante, like Chittick, is a Keldorf
fan. “Michelle is a zephyr,” Damante said. “She
provides a steady, guiding force to all of the
people she encounters. It is her superpower.”
OK, laudatory comments, one and all, but
who is Michelle Keldorf, who moved to town
in 2011? She was born in Virginia and raised
in Florida. “I had a pretty fabulous childhood,”
she said. Her father was a surgeon who landed
in the Bronx after immigrating to the United
States. In Orlando, Florida, she went to high
school and later matriculated to Princeton
University in New Jersey.
She knew that she wanted a liberal arts education
at Princeton and earned an opportunity
to become part of the varsity swim team. Her
family counseled her to embark on a medical
career pathway, but Keldorf said, “I didn’t
think that my stomach could handle it.” She
has always had an affinity for mathematics,
so she went down the economics pathway,
also evincing an interest in political science.
Her impressive schooling background includes
having achieved a Bachelor of Arts in
economics degree and a certificate in political
economy from Princeton. She followed that up
by dropping into the state of North Carolina
and scoring joint master’s degrees from the
University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler
Business School in multiple disciplines. Keldorf
The Keldorf Family. To read more about Michelle Keldorf, see story below. Photo’s courtesy of Michelle Keldorf.
See Michelle Keldorf, page 15
Couple Ties Their Love
Story to El Segundo
By Kiersten Vannest
“Is Keith Puckett coming to my house?”
Genesis Jackson moved to El Segundo
two years ago. A single parent of two boys,
ages 7 and 13, she began looking for ways
to get connected with her new community:
Volunteering her time, attending events,
meeting new people, and, fatefully, joining
some local Facebook groups.
In 2015, a resident named Michael Earley
created a page called the El Segundo Single
Parents Network, a Facebook group for local
single parents to connect and help each other
out with things like ride shares, babysitting,
parental advice, and more. Jackson joined
the group, and the world plunged into a
time of lockdowns, distancing, masks, and
an urgency for social justice.
As people turned more to social media
for human connection, Jackson came across
another profile in the group that piqued
her interest. Another single parent, Keith
Puckett, seemed to be very active in the
community while caring for his son. As all
interested parties do these days, she casually
perused his page and determined that he
was someone she would be interested in
learning more about. Little did she know,
Puckett had done the same with her.
In 2020, Jackson and Puckett attended a
Black Lives Matter event here in El Segundo
See ES Romance, page 10
Friday
Sunny
66˚/54˚
Saturday
Sunny
70˚/53˚
Sunday
Sunny
70˚/51˚