Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Executive Director Exits The White House

As First Lady Michelle Obama prepares to mark the second anniversary of the Let's Move! campaign this week with a huge blitz that includes a multi-state tour, her national initiative is without an Executive Director. Dr. Judy Palfrey (l), a pediatrician who was named to the post by Mrs. Obama in September of 2011, has quietly stepped down after serving for about two months. Palfrey was the second Executive Director for the campaign, replacing Robin Schepper, who served for ten months.

Palfrey's departure was not announced by the East Wing; she departed the White House in December, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Palfrey left her position as the T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School to join Mrs. Obama's team, and has returned to Boston to be closer to her family, according to the First Lady's Director of Communications, Kristina Schake.

Following her departure from Mrs. Obama's team, Palfrey was given a fellowship at the Partnership for a Healthier America, the non-profit foundation created to support Let's Move!; Mrs. Obama is honorary chair. Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass, Mrs. Obama's top domestic policy advisor, Jocelyn Frye, and Julie Moreno, a Public Health Advisor for Childhood Obesity, assigned to the Domestic Policy Council from the Surgeon General's Office, have been filling in the void left by Palfrey's exit.

Palfrey "is spearheading an important new initiative to mobilize health professionals and engage the research community in support of Let's Move! through a fellowship with the Partnership for a Healthier America," Schake said.

"Although she is no longer working out of our office, from her new position she is helping to expand efforts to eliminate childhood obesity in communities across the country."

Mrs. Obama will have eight events in Iowa, Arkansas, Texas and Florida beginning on Thursday, Feb. 9 to celebrate her campaign. Palfrey was involved with Mrs. Obama's anti-obesity crusade from the beginning, and spoke at the White House launch of the campaign in February of 2010, when she was President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Schepper, the mother of two boys, also cited family issues when she left the position of Executive Director. She joined the East Wing team in August of 2010, and departed in June of 2011.