The White House social secretary is responsible for planning and coordinating all social events and entertaining of guests - a sort of Event Planner in Chief for the president and first lady, if you will. It is a job that historically has been held by a woman.
See more: Has There Ever Been a Male White House Social Secretary?
The White House social secretary works for the first lady and serves as head of the White House Social Office, which plans everything from the casual and educational student workshops to elegant and sophisticated state dinners welcoming world leaders.
Journalists John Harwood and Gerald F. Seib described the role of White House social secretary as "one of the most difficult yet least understood jobs in Washington" in their 2008 book Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power.
"It is at once and enviable job - ingratiating its holder to to legions of Washingtonians as well as to others around the country who measure their status by invitations to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - and an enormously demanding one," wrote Harwood and Seib.
"The social secretary is, in many ways, the White House's link to the powerful, the famous, and the rich who live outside the bubble of the federal government," they wrote. "Social events draw those people into the rarified air of the White House, if only for a few moments.
"For the social secretary, that means dealing with the biggest egos in the world, a task that carries its own special kind of stress."
First Lady Edith Roosevelt hired the first White House social secretary almost 100 years ago. The position had been held exclusively by women until President Obama appointed Jeremy Bernard to the post on February 25, 2011.
The White House social secretary is typically well paid. President Barack Obama's first social secretary earned $113,000.