so we'll engage in this conversation with tina tchen for about 40 minutes, after which we will welcomestions from the audience and we'll conclude around 8:15. so, ms. tchen, here we are. i will lead off and i'll 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 having me here. i'm actually going to answer a different question first. [laughter] >> because to answer the chief of staff responsibilities you have to answer the 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, 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 and had to do that. and that's one piece. that's the context for working in the east wing of the white house and then similarly chief of staff sort of follo

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, stu

so we will engage in this conversation with tina tchen for about 40 minutes, after which we will welcomestions 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 staff to first lady michelle obama? >> thank you for having me. i'm going to answer a different question first because to answer the chief of staff responsibility she has to ask what are the responsibilities of first lady because one of the first things we have to talk about is there is no statute, no statutory responsibilities, there is no regulation that sets up the office of the first lady and there is no salary that comes with the office. so entering into this you come up with a blank slate. that's one piece that is the context. obviously you are the manager of the staff and we have kept very carefully at the same number because we knew that it was inevitable and it would have been where she has such a huge staff. we obviously had scheduling but then we had the various in