Michelle Obama

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Michelle Obama (center) poses for a photo opportunity at the JJ Convention 2007 in Virginia

Michelle Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is Vice President for Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals and wife of Barack Obama, one of the U.S. Senators for Illinois and candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for President.

1 Family and education
2 Career
3 Quote
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Family and education

Michelle Robinson was born to the late Frasier Robinson (d. 1990 ^[1]), a city pump operator and Democratic precinct captain and Marion Robinson, a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store ^[2] and grew up in the South Shore area of Chicago ^[3] in the same apartment where her mother still lives. ^[4] Her brother, Craig, is 16 months older than she is. Both children skipped the second grade. ^[5] She graduated from Whitney Young High School in 1981.^[6] She majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1985, and obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.^[7]

She married Barack Obama in 1992, and they have two daughters, Malia (born 1999) and Sasha (born 2001).^[8] Her brother is Brown University men's basketball coach.^[9] She is 5'11" tall (180 cm). ^[10]

[edit] Career

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago branch of the law firm Sidley Austin where she first met her husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property and was assigned as Barack Obama's summer advisor. ^[11] Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993 she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.^[6]

Mrs. Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago since 1996 where she developed the University's Community Service Center.^[12] She then worked for the University of Chicago Hospitals beginning in 2002, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May, 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. ^[13]

In May 2006, Essence magazine listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women."^[14]

She currently serves on the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc.^[15]