patty, you worked for both women at our table. you were talking about these great experiences and i'll just let you start where you want to. i don't want to pick a particular story because they're all charming but they're also very indicative of the kind of women they both were. and i think you describe both of them as kind. and and that's another it's a trait not just one implied. it has really struck me in preparing this and rereading a lot of the things that i was involved in that one, the main thing that they both was this great empathy for people and, their kindness. so faced their jobs and their responsibilities. but you always sense that in it

and a lot of the things that they did of i think were really because they understood how much it meant to people to have any kind of contact with the white house and i know that it it affected mrs. nixon's really revamping and having the white house available so many more people for international people that came the brochures were in several languages and she was continually thinking about things that could make the experience more memorable and, and really meaningful to people. and most important to her were,

the volunteers who came. that's what she focused on. yeah. people were giving back to their community. she wanted them to come to the white house. there was one little boy who came to the white house and he said, oh, you live. i don't believe you live here. where's your washing machine? and so she took the little boy and showed the little boy where the washing machine was, because you can't live in a house without a washer. yes. the other thing had in common was their sense of humor. mrs. ford as you know, she loved to have a good time as as well. and she was always seeing the humor in everything. and then her quiet, elegant way. mrs. nixon did, the same thing. you know, there would seem to be a little bit different, but they both had that humor and the kindness. susan i, want to talk about a

moment that showed grace and courage with your mother and it happened. never a good time for any diagnosis, but at such a pivotal moment in your family's life, you had just moved into the white house and your mother got a diagnosis of breast cancer. and if we were doing panel 50 years ago, i wouldn't have said breast cancer because you didn't say that in public. and she could have and others would have kept it as quiet possible. had people who do communications gloss over it. she had people taking pictures of her after her surgery in the hospital room. the first lady of the united speak to me about what that was for her at once, knowing had

just taken on the role of first lady of the united states and now is literally battling for her life. we had our wreck. i was at the lbj library last week and. lucy and i were talking because lucy and linda and her mother came to visit that day as mother was leaving that afternoon one evening to go check herself into bethesda. and lucy said, i don't know why your mother just have somebody else. let us see the white house, because it's a real privilege to go back to the house and see the house after you've left. i've only been once and then allowed to go upstairs to my bedroom and see my bedroom of what it looks like now, who knows what it looks like now? but anyway, you don't normally to go upstairs into the family and so we were letting lucy and linda see their old rooms and and all of that and they unaware that mother was headed to

bethesda naval hospital that afternoon, which i'm sure patty involved in right in that press release. and said to me, she goes, your mother was so gracious because she could have, you know, and said, but lucy, you and i now know how special it is to go back to the house. and why would my mother take that away from you. and and your mother. because it's unique experience and because my mother, lady bird, were also long time dear friends and had worked their husbands and worked together for years and years and years. so what was it like, as you to get a handle on what your lives were like, what your mom's life was going to be like having? these two big events happen very close and proximity to each other. how tough was it for her to to grasp the role of first lady while she's still obviously has

serious health issues? well know it's it's interesting. i worked my first job ever was for the white house historical association selling guidebooks to the tourists who came through. and that was my first job. and so i knew when the nixons were in house the the screen was up. so that couldn't go to the west wing and exactly what i'm talking about. so you knew if they were in house or out of house. so when we moved in, which was about ten days later while because julie, david were packing their things and getting them moved. i was cocky. let's just say that. well, mom, i mean, i worked and, you know, let me just show you how it was and but let's also remember, was 17. let's put in perspective.

so anyway and, my mother was extremely gracious because she had been to the white house many times mean there she was there during the kennedy administration and we went to church when the nixons have church services on sunday at the white house. i remember going to that. so you know the transition in from being vice president's wife to president's wife. i think it was a matter of housing because were still living in alexandria. so was an upgrade in housing for sure. and i want to ask you about the converse, because ten days earlier, you were standing beside the first lady and the president as talked to you and the rest of the white house staff just before he walked out in that famous shot, got on the helicopter and flew out to air force one. you also accompanied him on that flight, and that was moment that had to be particularly difficult for everyone.

but how did the first lady navigate at a moment like that? i actually that question was raised by steve bole, who has organized the event. and he asked me, should the family be there with the president? and of course, i thought of mrs. nixon. and of course, she's always been there with him, whether it is the fun crisis, where he wasn't sure what he'd do. and she said, you got to go fight it. and he did. and he won that. so in all these tough moments, she was there. she was a real fighter. and for her not to be would have just not been right. i think steve was asking, you know, would she be able to control emotion. well yes. there's no doubt about she was that type of a person. so we were all there. it was night before i was in the president asked me to be in the lincoln sitting room with him as he was preparing his talk.

i was very calm about. he asked me to go to book the quote that he used about roosevelt, teddy roosevelt, about his past wife, and that tribute that he read. so i brought that book with me to that and and then we got on the helicopter. i know that your parents accompany us there. julian, david stayed behind and we went off to san clemente with the with the president. mr. nixon, as we passed by the washington monument. the president is there. i'm sitting here. mrs. nixon's next him. and i thought. what do you say as you're going by am the marine one. and said, mr. president, in ten years you will be back. because that's the kind of person he was. and mrs. nixon was. they were fighters. and ten years later, by order of katharine, who heard him give

speech, he was on cover of newsweek saying he's back because everyone wanted seek his advice and is nixon was very much a part of that. patty a couple of things. your take as a staffer at that pivotal moment, but before that something much happier and i wanted to ask you earlier and we moved along you talked about mrs. loved to have one on one time with people to be able to look them in the eye, to make them understand not her importance, but the importance of the office and the presidency and the first lady. how many of you all have ever taken a tour? the white house? bunch of us. i think we have done it during the nixon administration because what would she do when there were tours coming in in the last months, when weren't traveling so much, she was able to to be there and be a hostess, if you

will, to people who wanted to come. so particularly with the women's that would come to see washington, she would have them invited into the white house. she would stand and sometimes three and four times a week she would greet them at door. she would them in the eye, talk to them and shake their hand. and everybody left. walking on air and and you know that those people still have that. a memory of of a highlight of their life. but she understood how much it meant to people to have a sense of the kinds of people run the the and who are in the white house. so she also was known because

she so much mail she had a view. remember it's like this has up outside her door for her to write her replies and she did it personally and not only. i mean, she never allowed else to sign the letters, but at any rate, she, she understood what mail meant to people and she made sure that everything was answered and. you know, sometimes it's what agency do you go to? i mean, you can't believe the the both the volume and how much time they they took because understood what it meant to people to have that kind of a relationship to being in the white house, being the first lady being a congressional wife in the fifties having all of that pressure. your mother didn't lose her

sense of humor. the the picture of her standing on the cabinet room table that kennerly took remains one of my favorites. how did she how did she cope with? the kind of pressures because it's not an easy place to live. there's a lot going on. and but she still in what i read what i see when you talked about her, she always seemed to be up and trying to to get others to be the same. i told you about the picture i saw the day, the election. your father had lost the entire family standing, the oval office as she tried to get jack to smile. you know, she's physically, like trying to get him to smile because obviously people were unhappy, you know, but she wanted people to feel better. well as patty knows, she was quite the prankster. she loved a good prank. now, i think some of that comes having two older brothers and having three boys.

and then she got me so you had to roll with the punches. and, i mean, it's my dad was gone probably 200 and some odd days a year. so you learn to roll with the punches. but we were always doing pranks at the white house and that was mandatory to keep spirits up. i mean, you know, inflation was this and, you know, whip inflation now buttons and the sweater that some woman wonderfully knitted my father i remember the picture of him it on christmas. but you so beaten down on living there by the press and the american your numbers are up one day and they're down the next. you to laugh. you have to laugh and my mother was a great prankster. she loved to be involved in a

prank. and i mean, patty, i'm sure you and you were part of maybe a prank or two along the way, but my mother was one of those that patty showed me a picture last night at dinner. that of what birthday was it for you? 30. 30. she hasn't changed a bit. and my mother really honored and respected her staff who worked for her and they became part the family because they are insiders and they know you can trust them and they're not going to talk. and i'm ed can say the same about president and mrs. nixon. they become friends each and every one to come back to you. but you tell the story about your 30th birthday. oh we are mrs. ford reconnected with the famous woman, had taught her how to dance and.

dancing was quite a an important part of her life when she had been young. so we went to new york. her escort was woody allen, who was in a tuxedo with tennis shoes. and it got quite a bit of it was her reuniting with martha graham. so we had had a wonderful weekend up there and. we came back and they given us a little plane to come in and we were, you know, just sitting there going over the day and how much fun it had been. and that kind of thing. and in walks in walks at that part of the plane, this cake was my 30th birthday. i didn't know anybody knew it was my 30th birthday. and she had gotten as a

surprise. it was such a sweet thing to do this beautiful cake with, candles. so that's how i celebrated my 30th birthday. this is my least favorite, favorite thing when it comes to these. we are almost out of time. and i it because i can sit here the rest of the afternoon. but i know you have schedules, so i'm going to make sure we stay with them and i'm going to with you i'm going to go to each of you. and this is a challenge, but try to tell me something, mrs. nixon, that else in this room knows. hmm. you've got to chat, patty. well, she was a wonderful mother in law to me, and we were married in 71 and 72. i graduated from law school and. the you are required in order to practice law to take a thing called a bar exam. and the school i went to, harvard doesn't get you ready to

do that. and mrs. nixon somehow understood that perhaps from her husband. and she made available to me the solarium of white house and set it for me so i could study there and nonstop for the six week sprint that you do to cram in order to pass the barracks. and that very kind of her do that. and the think of my and what i had to do because by the way, failing was not an option. and so she was that that thoughtful a wonderful mother in law. great story, patty. what don't we know that you know about either of these great first ladies? i think with mrs. nixon, the people don't understand one of the things that made her so effective was that she had

worked she started working and you mentioned a couple of the things she worked for in a hospital for two years. all these things. and that meant that when she came to the white house, she knew how to get things done and that was what drove her ability to bring more people into the white house all these other things but she never wanted any publicity herself so think most people do not understand how much she responsible for. and i. i regret but she really did it on behalf of the the nixon and what would say the nixon community she wanted people to understand that the government was doing something for them. susan, same question to and i apologize. we didn't need to get a to talk about the leadership courage your mother showed after she

left the white house complete. you know, specifically to substance abuse as well. and certainly worth noting. but what's something about your mom that we don't know she was spanker? i can attest to that. i know you. can't do that anymore. so i would also say that my parents were horror. well, drivers horrible. i was never so happy. as for them to get secret service and not be driving. and on that note will end with so many more stories to be told. thank you all very. i appreciate it. thank. thank you all. i do want to i do want to thank the ford presidential foundation for putting a spotlight on mrs. nixon here. as you said, she never really wanted that that recognition but

she was the kind of first lady who deserves it. so thank you very much is very much appreciated on behalf the nixon family. thank you. well and since we're passing out. thanks. i never for us to leave an event like this without saying thank you to all the people who work hard behind the scenes to make something like this happen. i want to thank the wonderful staff of the gerald r ford presidential foundation for all they did behind the scenes to pull off a big event like this. that's months and months, the planning. i'd also like to thank all the people here at the gw who prepared the meal and served so beautifully. so thank you all for all you did to make a great event. and of course we thank you the four panelists who did just an exceptional job of humanizing

what so often is just in a history book or, a textbook or a little clip on the history channel. you behind the scenes and underneath the exterior of these wonderful and humanize them for in a very special way. so thank each of you for bringing your a-game to us today. and i just want to make sure now that, nicolle, please come forward. this is a small token of our appreciation. we have a gift for each of you, and you'll be able to us this day. and at the same time, i want to bring susan ford forward because she's going to present a very special gift. thank you. gleaves. the white house belongs to the american people. and don't ever that. but the history of the white house is a national treasure. and the white house historical is essential in being the keeper of that house history.

with us today, gleaves had mentioned we have several guests from the association on behalf of the president and my mother i would like you all to please accept stand and accept boundless gratitude for all that you do every day. the keepers of the white house history. 40 years ago, the white house historical association began a tradition. each year they produce an ornament that pays tribute to a selected president and his family. this year's ornament honors dad and our family's christmas celebrations. the ornament is wonderful, and it portrays special parts of our milestone.

and one of this year's tributes that meant so much to my dad, the uss gerald r ford, cvn 78. to our friends, the white house historical association. thank you for all that do to preserve history of america's white house. and please accept my gratitude for this very special 2023 ornament. ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy video about this year's ornament. thank you all very much. the white house historical association was founded in 1961 to help collect exhibit artifacts of american culture at the white house and open the door to the rich history of the executive. to support this education efforts, the official white house christmas ornament program was started in 1981. each ornament is designed and assembled in the united states by a veteran founded business.

these ornaments honor presidents and significant anniversaries in white house history. the official 2023 white house christmas ornament features president gerald ford on the front of the wreath. the ford's white house christmas decorations themes, which focused on american handcraft efforts. turn the ornament around. see emblems representing president ford's legacy of service from his in boy scout troop 15, where he earned the rank of eagle scout to his college years playing football for the university of michigan. after graduating from yale law school, ford served in the united navy during world war two, achieving the rank lieutenant commander. one of the last honors that my received six weeks before he passed was naming of cvn 78. that was probably one of the highest honors he received following his military service, ford, elizabeth, betty bloomer, warren.

they married in 1948 and had four children. michael, john stephen and susan. gerald ford took office august ninth, 1974, after president nixon resigned. for declared in his remarks upon taking the oath of office. i am acutely aware that you have not me as your president by your ballots. so i ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers. god helping me. i will not let you down. thank you. during their time the white house, the fords made an celebrar dated history such as their participation in the bicentennial, including hosting a state dinner for queen elizabeth. the second. although one of the most famous families in the country, the fords enjoyed ordinary moments, the president was often with the family's golden retriever liberty. liberty. and my dad had just a really

unique relationship her dad taking her to the office, and she would just got right underneath his desk and made herself right at home. and like many american families was also a special time. the fords. the white house. so exceptionally beautiful during christmas and coming up with the themes you know the year of the bicentennial we did bicentennial ornaments. my mother was very involved in recruiting people to help make those ornaments. the official 2023 white house christmas ornament helps you to create your own white house inspired holiday memories. this year's ornament so special. when i look at it, it brings back many things and memories of my white house days of parents and it will always have a very special on my tree. purchased the official white

house ornament and help preserve our shared american story for generations to come come. isn't that a beautiful ornament. good afternoon. my name is rachel siglow and i am the director of the gerald r ford president foundation. i am that each of you will be bringing home an ornament that is a reminder of the ford white house. there's a gift in your gift bags, autographed books. gigi in the white house. the book was written by giovanna gigi mcbride. illustrated by john hutton and

published by the white house historical association. this children's is based on the real life experiences of gigi visiting her mother. anita mcbride, who is here today, who worked in the white house, the bush administration. unfortunately, gigi could not be with us today. she has finished finishing the semester's courses. anita is here along with her former colleague, albert lea. marilyn kimberly osborn and colleen shogan. thank you for joining us today. if you would like to purchase additional ornaments or copies of book gigi in the white house be sure to visit the white house historical website. their online store has. many unique gifts for the special people and occasions in your life. thank you to today's sponsors. fifth third bank, the steve and

amy van andel foundation blue cross blue shield care network of michigan. the secchia family foundation. grand valley state. the hauenstein for presidential studies. aquinas college. mary freebsd. rehabilitator john hospital. 13. on your side. dhs insurance. wilcox farms. trucking pioneer construction and allegra. if you're not a member, please becoming a member of the gerald r ford presidential foundation. we call our members friends of ford. their envelopes at the tables for you to consider your level of membership. sponsor our ships of our programs and your membership. help support the many initiatives of the foundation including educational programs of the davos learning center and the ford leadership. in addition, important

activities at the presidential library and museum that are not funded by the federal government. temporary exhibits, noted speakers and events are just a few examples. the activities supported by your. please us at our next event on 16th with author john luke, who will be discussing his book the good country a history of the american midwest. finally, i hope you enjoyed centerpieces at your tables. nathan veneman and, his team at green envy created today's look based on photographs, state dinners during the nixon administration. one person at each table will home a centerpiece. the winner is person at each table whose birthday is closest to mrs. pat nixon. march 16th.

congratulations thank you for joining us today and have a wonderful.

well, good evening. welcome and thank you for joining us this evening for what i'm sure will be a very stimulating session. my name is susan poser and i'm the president of hofstra university. this evening's program will address the leadership and legacy of first lady michelle obama. tonight, we will hear about the role that the first lady played in supporting president obama's election campaign. advising him during his time in the white house and how she continues to influence american politics today. i want to thank the women in

leadership advisory board of hofstra university for co-sponsoring this event, and many of them are with us today. my role this evening is to moderate a panel discussion about with mr. tina tchen, who served as chief of staff to the first lady. from 2011 to 2017. and in conversation with several members of the house, two faculty. so i'll begin with brief introductions. tina tchen currently serves as the executive vice president and chief strategy and impact officer for the obama foundation. she served for eight years in the obama white house, first as the inaugural director of the white house office of public engagement and then as chief of staff to mrs. obama. chen also served as the executive director of the white house council on women and girls for eight years after the white house, she worked in the chicago office of the buckley law firm

and later served as the president and ceo of time's up now! and the time's up, founder. the panel this evening also includes three hofstra professors who have scholarly expertise in women's studies, public communication policy making, education and mental health counseling all priority of michelle obama when she served as first lady. so far, this to your left. dr. lisa merrill is professor of writing, studies and rhetoric in the hofstra college of liberal arts and sciences. her research and publications are in the fields of performance studies critical race and cultural studies and women's and lgbtq history. professor merrill's publications have been awarded the jo callaway callaway book prize, the oscar bracket essay prize and the eclipse center. visiting professors in north american studies at the british library. sitting next to professor merrill is dr. tomeka robinson.

she's a professor of rhetoric, rhetoric and public advocacy and the senior associate dean in the rabinowitz honors college. her scholarship focuses primarily in the areas of health, culture and argumentation and debate. she is frequently invited to give lectures throughout the u.s. and brazil and regularly gives commentary to regional and national news organizations about issues of politics, health and race. dr. hollis serra, closest to me, holds a joint appointment as a professor in the department of counseling and mental health professions and educational leadership. she's an active member of numerous professional and community organizations, has presented at regional, national and international conferences and has authored or coauthored articles on topics ranging from the impact of hope, grit and resilience. behavioral health, college persistence and online pedagogy. so we will engage in this

conversation with tina tchen for about 40 minutes, after which we will welcome questions from the audience, and we will conclude around 815. so. so mr. chen. here we are. i will lead off and i will just simply ask you, what were your responsibilities as the chief of staff to first lady michelle obama? oh, well, thank you, susan. thank you for inviting me and for having me here. i'm going to actually answer a different question first, because to answer the chief of staff responsibilities, you have to ask your question what are the responsibilities of a first lady? because one of the things we used to talk about is there's no statute. right. there's no statutory responsibilities as there's no regulation that sets up an office of the first lady.

as we used to say, there's no salary that comes with the office of being first lady of the united states. and so entering into this, you know, you sort of come with a blank slate, you know, and hat and how to do that so that that's one piece that is the context for working in the east wing of the white house. and then similarly as chief of staff, that sort of follows i mean, obviously, you are the manager of the staff and we had our staff size. we kept actually very carefully at exactly the same number of staff that laura bush had, because we knew it was inevitable and it did happen where the critics would say she's got such a huge staff and it was like exact same as our predecessor. and so that included the social social office, which runs all of the events on the white house from the easter egg roll that just happened to large state dinners, to the press conferences. the president would hold it in the residence. we obviously had scheduling in advance for the for the first lady and but then, you know, we

had various initiatives which will i know we'll get into and talk about and those morphed over time. and so then we had staff who worked with us on that. so there's that management piece. but then there is the strategy sizing and helping her figure out message communications, i forgot to mention, was in a hugely important department because how do we communicate and how do we project ourselves out into the world? and that morphed over time because we were also really the first social media presidency to ever happen. and she was a big part of the leading edge, i think, of how the obama administration portrayed itself in social media. okay. so our next question will come from tamika. yeah. so as the first african-american first lady, you knew this question was coming. she is constantly framed as being a role model for girls of color, and particularly for black and brown girls. how did she feel about this framing and how it was portrayed

in the media? so, you know, it's one of those things where and she has talked about this and written about i mean, when when you're a person of color and i've experienced this to you, live it your whole life, right? i mean, she was this first, you know, or the only or the one of only a few, you know, when she went to princeton, you know, when she was at harvard law school, when she was in sidley austin, at the law firm. so, you know, she you're very you grow up almost conscious of that. so it became sort of a part of, i think, who she was knowing that. but her commitment to young people also sort of matured. you know, it started even before the white house when she did her work at public allies, which was a not for profit in chicago, that she spent some time working as as the ceo, which inspires young people to do social service and that connection she always used to say that, you know, if she was tired or if,

you know, a little cranky, that put her in a room with young people and that would be the solution. so we had lots of roundtables and lots of go to jumping jacks on these on the south lawn with young people. but she did understand that the role that she had would be very important. and so she used to say, you know, it was very interesting that we would we did this on the south side of chicago and roundtables with kids in anacostia in d.c. and overseas with kids, you know, young girls from just disinvested neighborhoods and she would explain that i'm like you, you know, i remember her saying this to kids. we weren't a roundtable and the south side of chicago, you know, at a school that had experienced a tremendous amount of gun violence that was less than a mile away from where she grew up. and she had to explain to these kids a couple of times because they didn't believe or to say, i grew up a half a mile from here. i did. i walked these streets, the very

streets that you walk on in this neighborhood and now here i am. and you can do that, too. but that was very much her message was this. and making really clear, explaining what the southside of chicago was to an overseas audience. remember, she did that at the mulberry school when we were in london with a school of immigrant bangladeshi girls. you know, to say, i understand that what you're doing is this let me paint you the picture of what growing up on the south side of chicago. look like. so using her platform to do that was really important to her remains important to this day. and this is the thank you for being here. this is an exciting time, i think, for all of us. so we appreciate you being here. i'm a performance historian, so it's going to be a question based on some of that. frederick douglass famously said if there's no struggle, there's no progress. those who favor freedom. and yet deprecate agitation are

men who want crops without plowing the ground. so my question for you, tina, is during the obama term in the white house, which particular struggles did you see? the first lady and your office regard as necessary to take on? well, i'm sort of laughing. and, you know, some of my colleagues from the obama administration are here. phil schiller and nancy-ann deparle, because actually struggles is how many in terms of what we face are over. we walked into the great recession and then we walked into you know, you know, trying to get the affordable care act passed. we walked into the repeal of don't don't is dead tell you so yeah there were there were a lot of. and your question about you know what did the first lady and our team view as necessary struggles actually is shaped by something that was a guiding principle for our work that mrs. obama articulated. and from the very beginning, she

said there's only one person elected in this building and everything we do on our side of the house needs to be in service of his agenda. and if it's not, then we got to ask ourselves a question about why are we doing it? and so, you know what we did and the initiatives we did, how she spent her time, where she went out was very much shaped by what what would serve the president's agenda was very much shaped by not doing something that would detract from his agenda or what was going on in that particular moment. so, you know, that that framing, you know, what were the necessary struggles, you know, obviously because it filling nancy your hair you know that fight for the affordable care act which the two of them were so instrumental in, was clearly something, you know, that was necessary to really illuminate. and remember, this is actually was not her chief of staff at the time that we were doing this, i was running the office of public engagement. but i helped her put together a moment in the jackie kennedy garden with breast cancer survivors to really highlight,

to make sure that, you know, she could be a unique messenger to women in what the importance was of the affordable care act to women's health and what that would do. so there were very, very moments where we knew we could be a unique messenger, you know, to speak to kids or to families or, you know, to shape that. and so i think that's that's probably how we approached that. what were the necessary struggles? thank you. great. thank you. my question has to do with education. and we know that mrs. obama was such a strong advocate for post-secondary education as evidenced by her reach hire initiative, promoting opportunities for higher education, and with a goal to have the united states have one of the highest proportions of college graduates in the world. could you please share with the roles that you think colleges and universities today can play to make that goal a reality? well, while we are look, mrs. obama and the president both

felt strongly that education really obviously led to their success, you know, shaped you know, their lives, you know, mr. obama's, you know, first generation, you know, she and her brother, you know, first generation in their family to graduate from college. so she really understood how critical that path was. she understood how difficult the path is for lots of kids. you know, as you may recall, because we've told the story a lot, you know, she was she went to a college, a high school magnet school in chicago. and yet when she expressed her desire to go to princeton, you know, the college, you know, counselor at whitney young, which was already a magnet, schools sort of said, i don't think so. you know, i don't think your princeton material which to the young michelle robinson was just seen as a challenge, rather, because that's who she is. and so she had lived it. right. and so expressed it that a lot how reach higher came about was

when we during 2012 during the reelection campaign most of my staff could not work on reelection work because their official white house staff and so when i had our policy staff do was to think about if we were so fortunate to get a second term, we already had our let's move initiative on childhood obesity. we had joining forces veterans, military families. we knew there was room to do a third initiative. what could that be? and this is an interesting thing to get back to the opening question, susan, which is when you are the first lady and everything's in front of you and you could do anything with this platform making those choices you find is actually exceedingly difficult to figure out where are the places where you could make a unique contribution? you're not doing something somebody else did that is sufficient, totally worthy of the platform of the first lady of the united states. and yet will have a deep enough effect that isn't just something surface that that was all the elements we tried to put together. and so we hit on the college

education goal because the president had already articulate it, that as a goal, the secretary duncan and and keeping with the we're doing something in service of the president's agenda that became the hit that the president and arne duncan had already articulated this north star, they called it to really increase. we had fallen from the top of the world in college graduates to like 16 or 17 by the time. and how do we return that and a big pitch as mrs. obama could uniquely make with given her story was two first generation and and disadvantage kids on the message of what why you should go to college or to your community college or technical school something post-secondary the importance of a post-secondary education and you know, i think she and the president really believe that is sort of the pathway to upward mobility. it is the pathway to economic economic opportunity for kids and we did a lot of talking about. so what can colleges and

universities do more of? one of the things we talked about a lot was is obviously access so increased financial aid increasing deep, reaching down into high schools. we visited several programs in colleges that were doing innovative things, you know, to bring kids on to college campuses. we actually did something where we did, you know, partnered with google, who did these virtual tours, you know, on, you know, on google view, whatever they call it, you know, where they you could you could do 360 views of colleges and universities. and then we went to howard to do a like a tour and, you know, took, you know, like an instagram thing around howard and we're like high school, you know, guidance counselors wouldn't have putting inner city kids together to make trips to places like howard and elsewhere. so schools can do more of that. right, pulling kids who might not otherwise think about your school to do that and get some exposure to it. and then when they're here and mrs. obama talked about this a lot when you're in school, if you came from a you know, were you the first generation person to go to school? if your family is struggling,

the pressure on a kid who got a scholarship to go to school, to spend that money, not on books, but on helping their family get fed, is tremendous. and i think we don't approve. those of us who don't didn't have a good fortune not to experience that folks in as she yours administrators of of schools need to pay attention and help support those kids who are coming from different circumstance is to be able to stay in school and to be able to fully experience. you know, it's not just enough to give them a scholarship. you have to help them manage that. and manage the scholarship and manage it together with the rest of their pressures, and then to make those kids feel like they belong. yes. she talked a lot about imposter syndrome, you know, because, again, she felt it. she was representative of how, you can work your way through that. it's some of what she talks about now. and like we carry and you know what she's doing now in her current book, you know, it's very much that message to. so i think those are some of the things that i think, you know, institutions of higher learning can do to really promote that access for for kids.

and i think we all know that those have really penetrated because this is this is what we do and this is what all universities are doing right now, particularly on the belonging. so fantastic. so it's it's pervasive, i would say, lisa, i think you were going to ask the next question. yes. i think in tina in your in your full response, you anticipate it one of my questions. so i'm going to reframe since you mentioned the new book, i'm going to ask you a question that comes from becoming okay. so in michelle obama's becoming she talks about when she was taking on the huge issue of children's health. she said now that i had the benefit of operating from a huge platform, the vagueness of my new job description could be marshaled in service of real goals. and so when you mentioned that there wasn't a prescription and i just wonder if you could talk and then she goes on to say,