Michelle Obama

Biography

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born 1964) grew up on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of a city pump operator with multiple sclerosis and a homemaker. She attended Princeton University (BA, 1985) and Harvard Law School (JD, 1988), practiced at Sidley Austin, then pivoted to public service through Chicago city government and the University of Chicago Medical Center. She married Barack Obama in 1992 and became First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Becoming, published in 2018, sold over 17 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling memoirs in history. She followed it with The Light We Carry (2022), a book of practical wisdom and personal strategies.

Michelle Obama at a glance