Yes, Michelle Obama and her gigantic toned arms may be a sight for sore eyes in this depressing economy, but she doesn’t do it all on her own. The First Lady gets plenty of help from an army of assistants, including hairdressers and dress designers. But the one co-ordinating this army, the General if you must, is Kristen Jarvis – Michelle’s special assistant for scheduling and traveling.
Dayo Olapade writes in The Root that when the first lady wants to jet to Copenhagen, Denmark, with Oprah Winfrey, transform the East Room into a Stevie Wonder concert or import 650 pounds of Hawaiian pork butt to the south lawn of the White House for a luau, Jarvis and 25 others are right there to make it happen.
The 28-year old graduate of Spelman College was a staffer for then- Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, when her political world collapsed that November when her boss was bounced from Congress and George W. Bush won reelection. That’s when Pete Rouse, Daschle’s chief of staff and now a senior White House adviser, brought her into the office of a young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.
In those days, “We always knew,” she says now. “We always believed that if there was going to be a first African-American president, he was going to do it.”
So what is it like working for the Obamas? Michelle, in particular – is she high or low maintainence? Find out more, here.
