Laura Velkei is a native of Los Angeles, born in Santa Monica and raised in the San Fernando Valley.  She attended UC Santa Barbara majoring in Film Production and minoring in Social Anthropology and Human Behavior.

Laura spent 10 years in the film business as a development executive developing and writing treatments for MOW’s and TV series and it’s also where she got her formal taste for politics.  Wanting to make a difference, she spent her free time engaging in local and national politics.

In 1991 she co-founded an organization called Politically speaking which focused on empowering the 18-34-year-old vote and worked on behalf of Bill Clinton and  Barbara Boxer.

In 2007 Laura created LA Grassroots 4 Obama (LAG4O) with a small group of colleagues in LA.  Within a few months the group which remained active until 2017 became one of the largest grassroots political organizations in the country.  Organizers from all over the US reached out to get direction from LAG4O.  Laura was instrumental in organizing 2 of the largest events in the country for the future President and LAG4O helped train in voter registration, phone banking, and canvassing.

In 2008, Laura was named the Southern California Volunteer Director for Obama for the Primary Election and was promoted to CA State Director of Volunteers for the General Election.

After taking a long-needed vacation in late 2009, Laura made the difficult decision to stay in California instead of heading to Washington.  She purchased a loft in the up and coming Arts District Los Angeles where she quickly became engaged in local politics.  In 2011 she co-founded the Arts District Community Council LA (ADCCLA) and also served as a Board Member and then as the Administrative Director for the Los Angeles River Artists & Business Association (LARABA).

In 2014, Laura was elected to the Historic Cultural Neighborhood Council with one of the highest vote counts of all candidates running and where she served as the 3rd Vice President, Communications Director, Chair of Bylaws & Elections, and Chaired the prominent and well respected Land Use Committee which she helped found.  She has served the Arts District as the Managing Chair of Land Use for the last 6 years, where she has seen over 300 projects over the last 11 years.

Laura founded the watchdog group, DONE Watch in 2018 to address the abuse, corruption, and mismanagement of millions of dollars within the City’s Neighborhood Council system.  The effort “removed” the General Manager and 2 senior City Attorneys.  She is also a frequent contributor to City Watch.

In the midst of all this activity, it became abundantly clear that true service had no party affiliation or role in how a street gets repaired, who experiences food insecurity, or how seniors see their family’s during a pandemic.  Laura decided to turn her attention to more positive and inspiring projects and “got hoi? was born.