White House announces State of the Union guests

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Former Cuba prisoner Alan Gross and astronaut Scott Kelly will be among first lady Michelle Obama’s guests at Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address, the White House announced Monday.

The 22 guests also include students and educators, health care officials and recipients, government officials, and a wounded veteran who fought in Afghanistan. Some of the guests wrote letters to Obama about various issues.

The invitees symbolize some of the themes of Obama’s speech, such as his recent decision to normalize relations with Cuba following Gross’ release.

The White House list, in alphabetical order:

Malik Bryant (Chicago), letter writer

The 13-year-old sent a letter to Santa over the holidays, but rather than request the usual gifts, Malik wrote: “All I ask for is for safety I just wanna be safe.”

Chelsey Davis (Knoxville, Tenn.), student, Pellissippi State Community College

A native of Jefferson City, Davis decided that community college was the best path to re-enter her collegiate career with the ideal support and resources.

William Elder Jr. (Englewood, Colo), medical school student

Elder graduated from Stanford and is currently a third-year medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Ohio. He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was 8 years old, at a time when most cystic fibrosis patients were only expected to live to early adulthood.

LeDaya Epps (Compton, Calif.), laborer apprentice

Epps never had things handed to her. Born in Compton and raised in the Los Angeles foster care system until she was a teenager, Epps graduated high school but found it difficult to secure a stable job, bouncing from job to job as a medical assistant for years. That changed when she was afforded the opportunity to complete a union apprenticeship in construction.

Rebekah Erler (Minneapolis), letter writer

Erler is a 36-year-old working wife and mother of two preschool-aged boys. Her family was hit hard by the downturn in the housing market when her husband’s construction business went under. After relocating from Seattle to Minneapolis and a number of difficult jobs, Erler’s husband is now back in the re-modeling industry, gets home in time for dinner each night with their family, and is enjoying continued professional growth.

Victor Fugate (Kansas City, Mo.), letter writer

Fugate first wrote to the president three years ago, sharing how he went from being an unemployed new father continuing his education to obtaining his degree and working with low-income patients to obtain medical care.

Retired Army Staff Sgt. Jason Gibson (Westerville, Ohio), letter writer, wounded warrior

Gibson first met Obama in 2012 at Walter Reed while recovering from injuries he sustained serving his country in Afghanistan. In October, Gibson wrote a letter to thank the president for visiting him as he recuperated and to underscore that “there is life after a traumatic event and good can come of all things.”

Alan and Judy Gross (Washington)

After five years of wrongful imprisonment in Cuba, USAID sub-contractor Alan Gross was reunited with his wife Judy and his family on Dec.17. That same day, Obama announced that the United States was changing its relationship with the people of Cuba.

Nicole Hernandez Hammer (Southeast Florida), mother and sea level rise researcher

Growing up in South Florida, Hammer knows firsthand the impacts of climate change and sea level rise and is raising awareness to the disproportionate effects felt along the coast and beyond. As a sea level researcher, she has studied how cities and regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change also have large concentrations of Hispanics.

Scott Kelly (Houston), astronaut

This March, Kelly will launch to the International Space Station and become the first American to live and work aboard the orbiting laboratory for a year-long mission.

Anthony Mendez (Bronx, N.Y.), student, “Reach Higher” Initiative

Growing up in the South Bronx with his mother and three siblings, Mendez names two experiences from his formative high school years. In ninth-grade, his best friend was murdered in his neighborhood, and the next year his family was evicted from their home and moved into a homeless shelter. Living two hours away from school, for six months Mendez had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to continue his education. Overcoming these experiences, he became the first high school graduate in his family – his story of perseverance represents the core of first lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative.

Larry J. Merlo (East Greenwich, R.I), president and CEO, CVS Health

Merlo, 59, is president and chief executive officer of CVS Health, which serves 100 million people each year through its 7,800 retail pharmacies, 900 walk-in medical clinics, and a pharmacy benefits manager with nearly 65 million plan members.

Katrice Mubiru (Woodland Heights, Calif.), letter writer, career technical education teacher

In January 2012, Mubiru, a career-technical education teacher for the Los Angeles unified school district, sent a letter to the president encouraging him to support K-12, adult and career technical education.

Astrid Muhammad (Charlotte, N.C.), letter writer

Muhammad, a wife and mother of 6- and 10-year-olds, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 2013, but at the time she didn’t have health insurance and delayed treatment. Last year, she enrolled in the Marketplace and obtained health insurance. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies could have refused treatment for her pre-existing tumor, but on Aug. 28 — now fully insured — she had surgery to remove the tumor.

Kathy Pham (Washington), United States Digital Service

Pham is a computer scientist with a passion for public service. Throughout her career, she has used technology to tackle pressing challenges. From Google to IBM to Harris Healthcare Solutions, she has designed health care interoperability software, studied disease trends with data analytics, and built data warehouses for hospitals.

Capt. Phillip C. Tingirides (Irvine, Calif.), Los Angeles Police Department

The south Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts has seen dramatic improvement in the crime rate since the area was tied to the eponymous race riots of 1965 and a spate of gang violence in the ’90s — and Tingirides has worked toward and seen a continued decrease in crime since the start of the Community Safety Partnership program in late 2011.

Catherine Pugh (Baltimore City, Md.), Maryland Senate majority leader

State Sen. Pugh is a small-business owner who currently serves as the Maryland Senate majority leader and is also president-elect of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Carolyn Reed (Denver), letter writer, small-business owner

Reed wrote to the president about how she was able to expand her small business and open an additional Silver Mine Subs shop in Denver thanks to a loan from the Small Business Administration.

Dr. Pranav Shetty (Washington), International Medical Corps

Dr. Shetty is the global emergency health coordinator for International Medical Corps, a critical partner in the U.S.-supported effort to bring the Ebola epidemic under control in West Africa.

Prophet Walker (Carson, Calif.), Watts United Weekend, co-founder

While serving a six-year prison sentence for robbery, Walker, now 27, vowed never to get caught in the revolving door of a life of crime and continued incarceration. He turned his focus to education, starting a program in prison that provides fellow inmates a chance to complete a two-year degree.

Tiairris Woodward (Warren, Mich.), Chrysler auto worker

Working for the local school system, Woodward, 43, wasn’t making enough money to support herself and her three children, the youngest of whom has special needs. She started working for Chrysler in 2010 on the assembly line, and after doing both jobs full time, working 17 hours a day, Tiairris was in a position to move solely to Chrysler — a union job that makes her a member of United Auto Workers Local 7.

Ana Zamora (Dallas), letter writer, student, DREAMer

Zamora wrote to the president in September, “as with any other dreamer, my parents came to this country with a dream of a better future for their children.” And through the Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Zamora is closer than ever to fulfilling those dreams.