Michelle Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A graduate of
Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Mrs. Obama started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She later worked in the Chicago mayor's office, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Mrs. Obama also founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an organization that prepares young people for careers in public service. She is the author of the New York Times #1 bestsellers The Light We Carry, Becoming, and American Grown. Through Higher Ground, which she co-founded with her husband in 2018, her work to share stories has won awards and accolades. At its release in 2020, The Michelle Obama Podcast was the most successful original in Spotify history. The Obamas currently live in Washington, D.C., and have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Meredith Koop is a stylist and creative consultant widely recognized for shaping the public image of former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and harnessing fashion as a powerful tool for storytelling-both during the Obama administration and the Becoming and The Light We Carry book tours. Blending insight and intention, Koop uses style to explore culture, politics and identity and has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and more.

Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative
Literature and African American Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of Who Set
You Flowin'?: The African American Migration Narrative; If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery:
In Search of Billie Holiday; Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During
World War II; and Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and
Literature, among other works.