Michelle Obama honors Microsoft’s Ryen Macababbad

At the White House, Michelle Obama today held an event to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Joining Forces Initiative alongside Dr. Jill Biden. At the event, Michelle Obama honored Ryen Macababbad, the program manager for Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory. Microsoft was one of the 40 companies who continue to support and train former service members.

Macababbad is one of the most recent examples of Microsoft’s commitment. As a sergeant in the Army, Macababbad enrolled in Microsoft Software & Systems Academy (MSSA) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord when she decided to leave the military after six years of service and two overseas deployments. MSSA helped her rekindle the “computer nerd” she’d been growing up and find a new path for her life. After graduating from the program, she joined Microsoft, where she works with Azure and cloud services — as she says, “the next new thing, the thing that is going to touch everything.” At the Joining Forces event, first lady Michelle Obama spent a few moments praising Macababbad’s passion for technology and eagerness to keep learning.

You can know more about Ryen’s achievements here.