Formed 1977 Parent Office White House Office | Employees 24 | |
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Headquarters East Wing of The White House Website First Lady Melania Trump | ||
The Office of the First Lady of the United States is the staff accountable to the First Lady of the United States. The office and its responsibilities, while not mandated, have grown as the role of the First Lady has grown and formalized through the history of the United States. The Office of the First Lady is an entity of the White House Office, part of the Executive Office of the President.
Contents
The First Lady has her own staff that includes a Chief of Staff, White House Social Secretary, Press Secretary, White House Chief Floral Designer, White House Executive Chef.
History
Though the persona, activities, and initiatives of the First Lady have always been significant to the history of the United States, the first First Lady to hire federally funded staff was Edith Roosevelt, who hired Belle Hagner as the first White House Social Secretary on October 2, 1901. Eleanor Roosevelt became the first First Lady to expand the office beyond social and administrative secretaries by hiring Malvina Thompson as her personal secretary and Jackie Kennedy was the first to employ a Press Secretary.
It was under Rosalynn Carter that the First Lady's staff became known as Office of the First Lady. She organized the office into four major departments: projects and community liaison, press and research, schedule and advance, and social and personal; and was the first to add a Chief of Staff.