Tina Tchen’s journey to eight years in the Obama White House started one day in 1978 when she dropped by the offices of NOW in Springfield, IL. The fight to ratify the ERA was on; “I showed up to volunteer ... and never left,” she says.

Although the ERA ultimately failed, Tina’s fire for leading change was lit. She ended up becoming vice president of Illinois NOW, going to law school, supporting Harold Washington’s successful bid to become Chicago’s mayor in 1983 and helping to found Cook County Democratic Women. Along the way, she became an organizer par excellence in a town known for bruising politics.

It’s also how one night she met a young community organizer named Barack Obama. Their friendship ultimately took Tina from the backrooms of Chicago politics to the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. as staff. Today, she is Executive Vice President of Programs for the Obama Foundation, helping to launch the Presidential Center now rising on Chicago’s south side. Yet, in a way, Tina is right back where she began—advocating for women and creating opportunities for girls. Read the story of her journey as the daughter of immigrants who taught Tina to both revere her Chinese heritage ... and embrace her American future.