Friends,

Here in the United States and across the globe, President Obama and his Administration have been working to empower women and girls.

On Wednesday, President Obama visited Knox College in Illinois to kick off a series of speeches about his vision for rebuilding an economy that puts the middle class – and those fighting to join it – front and center.

That same day , five past winners and current finalists of the annual Google Science Fair met with Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, at the White House to discuss career paths for women in science, technology, engineering and math.

Dr. Jill Biden is traveling in India this week and focusing on issues affecting women and children. On Tuesday, Dr. Biden participated in a roundtable discussion with officials from the government of Maharashtra, USAID, UNICEF, Indian civil society and the private sector to learn about their efforts to improve nutrition across the country. Please read on for more about Dr. Biden’s important visit.

That same day, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed 1,800 people at the National Council of La Raza’s Annual Conference in New Orleans, including many mothers and grandmothers, to talk about the importance of healthy lifestyles for families – including nutrition, exercise, and regular check-ups and screenings.

In case you missed it, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Caroline Kennedy to be the next Ambassador to Japan and Carrie Hessler Radelet to be the new Director of the Peace Corps. The Senate confirmed Gina McCarthy as the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the President commended her as a “proven leader.”

Please read below for more, and thank you for all that you do!

White House Council on Women & Girls

President Obama Lays out a Better Bargain for the Middle Class

In his remarks on Wednesday, President Obama highlighted the progress our country has made together in the five years since the start of the recession saying,

“Thanks to the grit and resilience and determination of the American people – of folks like you – we’ve been able to clear away the rubble from the financial crisis. We started to lay a new foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth. As a country, we’ve recovered faster and gone further than most other advanced nations in the world. With new American revolutions in energy and technology and manufacturing and health care, we’re actually poised to reverse the forces that battered the middle class for so long, and start building an economy where everyone who works hard can get ahead.”

Learn more about President Obama’s plan here.

President Barack Obama delivers a speech on the economy at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., July 24, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

All-Star Female Students Come to the White House to Discuss Women in STEM

On Wednesday, at a meeting in the West Wing of the White House, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Jen Pahlka, and other senior Obama Administration officials specializing in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), met with five inspiring young women to discuss academic and career pathways in STEM fields. The students were past winners and current finalists of the annual Google Science Fair—an online science competition open to high-school-aged students that solicits “ideas that will change the world.”

Read more about the impressive accomplishments of nominees and finalists Brittany Wenger, Valerie Ding, Naomi Shah, Lizzie Zhao and Lauren Hodge.

Dr. Biden’s Trip to India

This week, Dr. Biden has been traveling in India visiting with non-profits and members of the private sector to discuss issues affecting women and children, including life-threatening malnutrition. On Tuesday, Dr. Biden attended a roundtable discussion with Government of Maharashtra Officials, USAID, UNICEF, Indian civil society and private sector representatives to learn about their efforts to improve nutrition across the country and to make available other proven health interventions to prevent child deaths, such as immunizations, clean water, and treatment of pneumonia and diarrhea.

After the roundtable discussion Dr. Biden continued on to The Dilaasa Crisis Intervention Department for Women in Bandra, an area in Mumbai. The center is the first hospital-based crisis center in India for female survivors of domestic violence and came out of a partnership between the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, a public entity, and the Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, a private trust. This relationship illustrates how dedicated both the people and the government are to creating a safe space for the victims of gender based violence and to ensuring that this nightmare ends for so many women.

Read more about Dr. Biden’s visit to India here.

Dr. Biden meets with community leaders, US and India agency officials, and NGOS to discuss joint efforts to end childhood malnutrition. (Photo Credit: Carrie Levay)

Michelle Obama Empowers Latino Community at Nation Council of La Raza Conference

Speaking to over 1,800 attendees at the Annual Conference of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the NCLR’s accomplishments in reducing obesity through its Comer Bien (Eat Well) program. She emphasized, however, that there is still much more work to be done since nearly 40 percent of Hispanic children in the U.S. are overweight or obese and Hispanic kids ages nine to 13 are only half as likely to participate in organized physical activity outside school.

The First Lady urged the audience to use their purchasing decisions to make change. She said, “Today, the Latino community’s buying power is more than one trillion dollars…and it’s expected to increase to $1.5 trillion by 2015. So make no mistake about it, with the choices that you make, you all could completely transform the marketplace… So when companies step up and provide healthy choices…we all need to step up and actually take advantage of those choices.”

Read the First Lady’s full remarks here and learn more about the First Lady’s efforts to fight childhood obesity with her Let’s Move initiative.

In Case You Missed It: Confirmations & Nominations

On Tuesday, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Caroline Kennedy as Ambassador to Japan. Caroline Kennedy is President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and Chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. She is the editor of several New York Times best-selling books on topics including constitutional law, American history, politics, and poetry. She received a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gina McCarthy as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As President Obama noted: “With years of experience at the state and local level, Gina is a proven leader who knows how to build bipartisan support for commonsense environmental solutions that protect the health and safety of our kids while promoting economic growth.”

The President also announced his intent to nominate Carolyn “Carrie” Hessler Radelet as Director of the Peace Corps saying, “As Deputy Director of the Peace Corps, Carrie has been instrumental in recruiting and training thousands of Peace Corps volunteers who work to promote social and economic development around the world. I’m delighted to nominate her as Director, so this program can continue to benefit from her vision and commitment.” Currently Ms. Hessler Radelet is Deputy Director of the Peace Corps, a position she has held since 2010. Read her biography here.

President Barack Obama announces the nominations of, from left, Ernest Moniz as Energy Secretary, Gina McCarthy as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, and Sylvia Mathews Burwell as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in the East Room of the White House, March 4, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)