Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.
His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.
With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.
After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.
He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.
President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.
He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9.

Vice President Joe Biden

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., was born November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of four siblings. In 1953, the Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, Delaware. He graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council. Then, at age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate.
Just weeks after the election, tragedy struck the Biden family, when Biden's wife, Neilia, and their 1-year old daughter, Naomi, were killed and their two young sons critically injured in an auto accident. Vice President Biden was sworn in to the U.S. Senate at his sons' hospital bedside and began commuting to Washington every day by train, a practice he maintained throughout his career in the Senate.
In 1977, Vice President Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, who holds a Ph.D. in Education, has been an educator for over two decades and currently teaches at a DC-area community college. The Vice President has three children: Beau, Hunter, and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware's Attorney General and recently returned home from Iraq where he served as a Captain in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard. Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is an attorney. Vice President Biden has five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel ("Maisy"), Natalie, and Robert Hunter.
As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Senator Biden established himself as leader on some of our nation's most important domestic and international challenges. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, then-Senator Biden was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997, then-Senator Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. He has been at the forefront of issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.
Now, as the 47^th Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden has continued his leadership on important issues facing the nation. The Vice President has been tasked with implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, helping to rebuild our economy and lay the foundation for a sustainable economic future. He is also the chair of the administration’s Middle Class Task Force, a major White House initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle class families in America. In addition, he is providing sustained, high level focus for the administration on Iraq policy and has traveled to the country multiple times since being elected as Vice President. Vice President Biden continues to draw on his vast foreign policy experience, advising the President on a multitude of international issues and representing our country to many regions of the world, including travel to Germany, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Georgia, Ukraine, Iraq, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Spain, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.

First Lady Michelle Obama

When people ask First Lady Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate to say that first and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.
But before she was a mother -- or a wife, lawyer or public servant -- she was Fraser and Marian Robinson's daughter.
The Robinsons lived in a brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Fraser was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, and despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age, he hardly ever missed a day of work. Marian stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother Craig, skillfully managing a busy household filled with love, laughter, and important life lessons.
A product of Chicago public schools, Mrs. Obama studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton University. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met the man who would become the love of her life.
After a few years, Mrs. Obama decided her true calling was working with people to serve their communities and their neighbors. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago's City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service.
In 1996, Mrs. Obama joined the University of Chicago with a vision of bringing campus and community together. As Associate Dean of Student Services, she developed the university's first community service program, and under her leadership as Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, volunteerism skyrocketed.
Promoting Service and working with young people has remained a staple of her career and her interest. Continuing this effort now as First Lady, Mrs. Obama recently launched the Let’s Move! campaign to bring together community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide effort to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity. Let’s Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Let’s Move! will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.
As First Lady, Mrs. Obama looks forward to continuing her work on the issues close to her heart — supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country.
Michelle and Barack Obama have two daughters: Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9. Like their mother, the girls were born on the South Side of Chicago.

Dr. Jill Biden

Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, wears many hats: she is a mother and grandmother, she has been an educator for three decades, she is a proud Blue Star mom, and an active member of her community. As Second Lady, Jill works to highlight the importance of community colleges, to raise awareness about the sacrifices made by military families, and to bring attention to women’s health issues, including breast cancer.
Jill also continues to teach English full-time at a community college not far from the White House.
Jill has always said that community colleges are “one of America’s best-kept secrets.” She is working hard to make sure that is no longer the case: President Obama has asked Jill to help promote community colleges around the country and she works consistently on this outreach on behalf of the Administration. This fall, she will host the first ever White House Summit on Community Colleges.
As a military mom, Jill understands first-hand how difficult it can be to have a loved one deployed overseas. In Delaware, she was active with a nonprofit organization called Delaware Boots on the Ground, which is dedicated to helping families during times of military deployment by organizing community events to raise awareness and support.
Now, as Second Lady, she has dedicated herself to shining a light on military families’ strength and courage as well as the challenges that they face. She travels regularly to military bases in both the United States and abroad to speak with soldiers and their families and to raise awareness for the special sacrifices that these Americans make.
Together with First Lady Michelle Obama, she has issued a national challenge to all Americans to take action and find ways to support and engage our military families in their own communities. Jill is asking folks she meets to go to serve.gov and share their stories about how they’re supporting those who serve us every day.
In 1993, after four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer, Jill started the Biden Breast Health Initiative in Delaware, which in the past 17 years has educated more than 10,000 ninth-through-twelfth-grade girls about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. For the past two years, Jill and the Vice President have served as the Honorary Co-Chairs for the Global Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C.
Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Jill taught English at a community college in Delaware, at a public high school and at a psychiatric hospital for adolescents. Jill earned her Doctorate in Education from the University of Delaware in January of 2007. Her dissertation focused on maximizing student retention in community colleges. She also has a two Master's Degrees — both of which she earned while working and raising a family.
Jill and Joe have three children: Ashley, a social worker; Beau, the Attorney General of the State of Delaware and a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard; and Hunter, a lawyer. They have two daughters-in law, Kathleen and Hallie, and are also the proud grandparents of five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Maisy, Natalie, and Hunter. The oldest of five sisters, Jill Jacobs was raised in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, by Bonny and Donald Jacobs, both of whom are now deceased.

The Cabinet

The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. Established in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, the Cabinet's role is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of each member's respective office.
The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General.
Official Cabinet Photo

President Obama at Cabinet meeting April 20, 2009 at the White House.
White House Photo by Pete Souza
In order of succession to the Presidency:
Vice President of the United States
Joseph R. Biden
Department of State
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton
http://www.state.gov/

Department of the Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner
http://www.treasury.gov/

Department of Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates
http://www.defenselink.mil/

Department of Justice
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.
http://www.usdoj.gov/

Department of the Interior
Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar
http://www.doi.gov/

Department of Agriculture
Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack
http://www.usda.gov/

Department of Commerce
Secretary Gary F. Locke
http://www.commerce.gov/

Department of Labor
Secretary Hilda L. Solis
http://www.dol.gov/

Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
http://www.hhs.gov/

Department of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Shaun L.S. Donovan
http://www.hud.gov/

Department of Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood
http://www.dot.gov/

Department of Energy
Secretary Steven Chu
http://www.energy.gov/

Department of Education
Secretary Arne Duncan
http://www.ed.gov/

Department of Veterans Affairs
Secretary Eric K. Shinseki
http://www.va.gov/

Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet A. Napolitano
http://www.dhs.gov/
The following positions have the status of Cabinet-rank:

White House Interim Chief of Staff
Peter M. Rouse
Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
http://www.epa.gov/
Office of Management & Budget
Jeffrey Zients, Acting Director
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb

United States Trade Representative
Ambassador Ronald Kirk
http://www.ustr.gov/
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Ambassador Susan Rice
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Council of Economic Advisers
Chairman Austan Goolsbee
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/

White House Staff

Interim Chief of Staff
Pete Rouse
Deputy Chiefs of Staff
Jim Messina
Mona Sutphen
Senior Advisors
David Axelrod
Valerie Jarrett
Visit the Executive Office of the President section to learn about more of the President's staff.

Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina

Jim Messina is Deputy Chief of Staff to President Barack H. Obama. He previously served as Director of Personnel for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition and as national chief of staff for Obama for America.
Messina joined the Obama campaign from the office of U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where he was chief of staff. He previously held the same position for U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).
He has overseen and consulted on political campaigns across the country, from Alaska to New York. He is a graduate of the University of Montana and attended high school in Boise, Idaho

Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina

Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen

Mona Sutphen is Deputy Chief of Staff to President Barack H. Obama. Prior to holding this position, she was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition.
Before joining the Transition, Sutphen served as Managing Director of Stonebridge International, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., that advises Fortune 500 corporations on business opportunities and challenges worldwide.
From 1991 to 2000, Sutphen was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in the White House at the National Security Council, at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, in the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia, in the State Department human rights bureau, and at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok.
Sutphen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Rise While Others Thrive (Simon & Schuster 2008). She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and received her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.

Stay Connected

Senior Advisor David Axelrod

David Axelrod is Senior Advisor to President Barack H. Obama. Prior to that, he served as Senior Advisor to the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition and Senior Strategist to Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency.
Since 1988, Axelrod has been Senior Partner at the consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media, based in Chicago. In that capacity, he managed media strategy and communications for more than 150 local, state, and national campaigns, with a focus on progressive candidates and causes.
In 2006, Axelrod ran the independent expenditure media program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, helping Democrats regain the majority in the House of Representatives. That same year, Axelrod served as media adviser to Deval Patrick, who was elected Massachusetts's first Democratic governor in 16 years and the state's first-ever African American governor. In 2004, when President Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate, Axelrod helped him defeat a primary field of six other Democrats and go on to a landslide win in his U.S. Senate campaign.
Before entering politics in 1984, Axelrod spent eight years as a reporter for The Chicago Tribune, where he covered national, state, and local politics. In 1981, he became the youngest political writer and columnist in the paper's history. He also served as the Tribune's City Hall bureau chief.
Active in charitable work in Chicago, Axelrod has supported Special Olympics and Misericordia. In 1998, he and his wife, Susan, helped found Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), which has raised over $15 million so far for scientists searching for a cure.
Axelrod was born in New York City on February 22, 1955, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School and the University of Chicago. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University and has lectured on political media at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to Susan Landau and has three children, Lauren, Michael, and Ethan.

Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett

Valerie B. Jarrett is Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement. Prior to her current position, she served as Co-Chair of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, and Senior Advisor to Obama's presidential campaign.
Jarrett became the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company on January 31, 2007. She had served as Executive Vice President of Habitat for 12 years. Prior to that, Jarrett served for eight years in Chicago government as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development. Before her city government service, Ms. Jarrett practiced law with two private law firms.
Prior to joining the Obama administration, Jarrett served as a Director of corporate and not for profit boards, including Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, and Vice Chair of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees. She was a Director of the Local Initiative Support Corporation, The Joyce Foundation, and a Trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry.
From 1995 to 2003, Jarrett served as Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board. Jarrett also served as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange from April 2004 through April 2007. She was a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago from January 2006 through April 2007. Jarrett served as Finance Chair for President Obama's 2004 run for the U.S. Senate.
Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Executive Office of the President

Every day, the President of the United States is faced with scores of decisions, each with important consequences for America’s future. To provide the President with the support that he or she needs to govern effectively, the Executive Office of the President (EOP) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The EOP has responsibility for tasks ranging from communicating the President’s message to the American people to promoting our trade interests abroad.
Overseen by the White House Chief of Staff, the EOP has traditionally been home to many of the President’s closest advisors.
The following entities exist within the Executive Office of the President:

Council of Economic Advisers
Council on Environmental Quality
National Security Council and Homeland Security Council
Office of Administration
Office of Management and Budget
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Office of the United States Trade Representative
Office of the Vice President
Executive Residence
The White House

In addition, the following entities exist within The White House:

Office of Cabinet Affairs
Office of the Chief of Staff
Office of Communications
- Communications
- Media Affairs
- New Media
- Research
- Speechwriting
Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
Office of the First Lady
- Office of the Social Secretary
Office of Health Reform
National Security Advisor
Office of Legislative Affairs
Office of Management and Administration
- White House Personnel
- White House Operations
- Telephone Office
- Visitors Office
Oval Office Operations
Office of Political Affairs
Office of Presidential Personnel
Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
Office of the Press Secretary
Office of Scheduling and Advance
Office of the Staff Secretary
- Presidential Correspondence
- Executive Clerk
- Records Management
Office of the White House Counsel
Office of White House Policy
- Domestic Policy Council
  - Office of National AIDS Policy
  - Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
  - Office of Health Reform
  - Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
- National Economic Council
White House Military Office

The EOP Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Congressional Budget Submission, supporting the offices and councils within the EOP, was submitted to the Congress on February 1, 2010.

Other Advisory Boards

Advisory Boards are established to provide the President with independent information and advice from top experts in their fields.
The President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), with its component Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), is an independent element within the Executive Office of the President.
The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board exists exclusively to assist the President by providing the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the nation’s intelligence needs, and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The Board has access to all information needed to perform its functions and has direct access to the President.
The Intelligence Oversight Board oversees the Intelligence Community’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives. It complements and supplements, rather than duplicates the oversight roles of the Director of National Intelligence, Department and Agency Inspectors General and General Counsels, and the Congressional Oversight Committees.
For more than five decades the PIAB has acted as a nonpartisan body, offering the President objective, expert advice on the conduct of U.S. intelligence.m