Semele Halkedis Heller was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, and is now living in Northern California. She was a project manager in tech, but left to be a stay-at-home mom to her three children. She serves on the board of directors of the National Youth Science Foundation, her local chapter of the Young Men's Service League, and her local Little League. In non-COVID times she spends a lot of time volunteering at her children's schools. Semele and her family attend Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Belmont, CA, where she taught Religious Ed for many years and served as the co-director of the Religious Ed program. She likes to joke that she's passed the church volunteering baton on to her husband, who converted to Orthodoxy after all their children were born, and now serves on the parish council.