Feature Friday

I am so excited that we have been blessed to see another Black History Month! It’s imperative that we not forget the many African Americans that came before us and were an essential part of American history. As we celebrate Black History Month, Saved M.O.M. is featuring African American Women whom played significant roles in the progression of American History, every Friday this month. Today’s feature is non other than the intelligent and beautiful Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama. She was born January 17, 1964 and is the wife of the forty-fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first First Lady of the United States of African-American heritage. She is also the proud mother of two amazing little girls.

Michelle Robinson was born in and grew up on the South Side of Chicago. She attended Princeton despite discouragement from applying by high school advisors who felt her scores weren't adequate. Yet she graduated from the college with honors. She was one of very few black students attending Princeton at the time, and the experience made her acutely aware of the issues of race. When she applied to Harvard Law, she again faced bias as college counselors tried to talk her out of her decision. Despite their doubts, she excelled. Professor David B. Wilkins remembers Michelle as forthright: "She always stated her position clearly and decisively."

After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and accepted a position with the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property. Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she founded Public Allies Chicago which provided young adults with leadership training for public service careers. She worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood 12 years after she left. As executive director, she headed up a non-profit named by President Bill Clinton as a model AmeriCorps program.

In 1996, she served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's first community service program. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs. She continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the primary campaign, but cut back to part time in order to spend time with her daughters as well as work for her husband's election; she subsequently took a leave of absence from her job.

She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS), a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, New Jersey, on May 14, 2007. She serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Throughout 2007 and 2008, she helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid and delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Although she resists the labels 'feminist' and 'liberal,' Michelle Obama is widely recognized as outspoken and strong-willed. She has juggled career and family as a working mother, and her positions indicate progressive ideas on the roles of women and men in society.

Most of the aforementioned information was cited from the following sources…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama and http://womensissues.about.com/od/influentialwomen/p/MichelleObama.htm

Until our next appointed meeting time. Stay tuned for more words of encouragement and inspiration for M.O.M.’s near and far! Please share this blog with as many people as you know (www.savedmom.com), we have so many lives to touch. Feel free to post a comment and/or subscribe (if you are reading this from your inbox visit the site address referenced above to post a comment). If you would like to submit prayer requests send them to info@savedmom.com. Thanks for your continued support!

Mommie Blessings,

Saved M.O.M.