Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.

Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. She has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame.

She is also the author of The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

Speaking at a London girls' school in 2009, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each student to take education seriously.

It is this new, brilliant generation, she says, that will close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Michelle Obama's life as First Lady of the United States is informed by her early life, growing up as the daughter of a pump operator for the Chicago water department.