Michelle Obama

Name at birth: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson

Michelle Obama is the wife of U.S. president Barack Obama. She is also a lawyer and a former Chicago city administrator and community outreach worker. Reared in a blue-collar home on Chicago's South Side, she was an associate at a law firm when she met Obama; he was a summer intern and she was assigned to advise him. She has worked in the offices of Chicago's mayor and its planning commission, headed a career-training program for young adults and directed community affairs for the University of Chicago and its medical center. She caught the eye of a national audience at her husband's side after he delivered a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and then was elected that year to the U.S. Senate. In 2007 she scaled back her own professional work to attend to family and campaign obligations during Obama's run for president. She took her turn as a speaker on the opening night of the 2008 Democratic convention, and her husband was elected president on 4 November 2008. She became First Lady with his inauguration on 20 January 2009.