broderick johnson, assistant to the president of the united states, canada and secretary -- , and chair ofary the my brother's keeper task force. please come to the podium. and he is my close friend, michelle johnson's husband. [applause] broderick: thank you, thank you. good afternoon. first, let me thank you. you remember me from when i had a 'fro. i had hair, but now i keep it closely cropped, as they say. thank you my dear friend of all these years. you do a great job, including being the mc here today. for the past seven years, the people in this room have been great supporters and friends, president obama, the first lady, and this administration. from day one, asalh has partnered with the president and the first lady, and we are incredibly grateful for everything you've done for this administration, for our community, and for making african american history month at the white house very special, every single year. i would especially like to thank your president, dr. evelyn brooks higgenbosom. we look forward to working with you. your executive director, sylvia cyrus, and the entir

it is myundles introduce broderick johnson. a'lelia: please come to the podium. and he is my close friend, michelle johnson's husband. broderick johnson -- broderick: thank you, thank you. good afternoon. first, let me thank you. you remember me from when i had a 'fro. now i keep itt closely cropped, as they say. thank you my dear friend all these years. you do a great job, including being the mc here today. for the past seven years, the people in this room have been great supporters and friends, obama, the first lady, and this administration. has day one, asalh partnered with the president and the first lady, and we are incredibly grateful for everything done for this administration, for our community, and for making african american history month at the white house very special, every single year. i would especially like to thank your president. we look forward to working with you. your executive director, sylvia cyrus, and the entire asalh board. it is notable that this is a 29 day february. we will make good use of that extra day this year. the president expe

broderick johnson is the white house cabinet secretary. he recently went back to his all matter, university of michigan it school to talk about what is like working for the president. he also talked about the task force of my brother's keeper which he chairs. this is an hour. >> good afternoon. welcome. i am susan collins. it is wonderful to have all of you to invest this afternoon. today, it is an honor to be introducing broderick johnson, who joins us as part of the university's month-long martin luther king jr. symposium. it is a special pleasure to have all of you here with us for today's policy talks. broderick's assistant to houseent obama, the white cabinet secretary and chair of the president my brother's keeper task force. i suspect that some of you are curious to know about what a cabinet secretary does. briefly, thurgood marshall jr. was the first person to hold this position under president clinton. as you will hear more about later today, broderick johnson in that role is the primary liaison between barack obama and the cabine