Michelle Robinson Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, transforming the position and becoming a role model, champion and inspiration for women, families, and young people across America and around the world.

As First Lady, Mrs. Obama launched and led four key initiatives: 

• Let’s Move! brought together community leaders, educators, medical professionals, parents, celebrities and others in a nationwide effort to address the challenge of childhood obesity; 
• Joining Forces, which she launched with Dr. Jill Biden, called on all Americans to rally around service members, veterans, and their families and support them through wellness, education, and employment opportunities; 
• Reach Higher aimed to inspire young people across America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university; 
• Let Girls Learn, focused on helping adolescent girls around the world go to school. Mrs. Obama’s work on girls’ education continues through the Girls Opportunity Alliance at the Obama Foundation.

Mrs. Obama attended Chicago public schools until enrolling in Princeton where she studied sociology and African American studies. She graduated cum laude from Princeton in 1985 and received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.  She then joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. 

Following her time at Sidley & Austin, Mrs. Obama served as an assistant to Mayor Richard Daley and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago, before becoming the founding Executive Director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares young people for public service careers. 

As part of her continued focus on community service and engagement, Mrs. Obama joined the University of Chicago in 1996 as its Associate Dean of Student Services focused on fostering connections between the campus and community. She also served as Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center. 

In 2018, Michelle Obama published her memoir, Becoming, which sold more copies than any other book published in the United States in 2018, achieving that status in just 15 days and instantly rising to the #1 slot on the New York Times Best Sellers list. She won a Grammy for her audio recording of Becoming and more than 15 million copies of Becoming have been sold worldwide. She also published a young readers edition of Becoming in 2021, adapted for children ages 10 and up. 

In 2018, Mrs. Obama and President Obama launched Higher Ground, a company focused on lifting up diverse voices in the entertainment industry. As part of Higher Ground, Netflix launched the Becoming documentary rooted in her memoir.  

In 2020, Mrs. Obama released the Michelle Obama Podcast where she hosted conversations with family, friends and colleagues exploring the relationships in our lives who make us who we are. In 2021, Higher Ground Productions also launched Waffles + Mochi, a culinary children’s series on Netflix. Alongside the release of the series, Mrs. Obama launched Pass the Love with Waffles + Mochi, a joint campaign with the Partnership for a Healthier America, which aims to provide meals to families experiencing food insecurity. Visit wafflesandmochi.org for more information. 

Mrs. Obama was born on January 17, 1964. She married Barack Obama in 1992. They currently live in Washington, DC and have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.