Meet the Detroit woman who will attend State of the Union as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama

DETROIT (WXYZ) - The White House says that a local woman will have a high-profile seat near First Lady Michelle Obama during tonight’s State of the Union Address.

Alicia Boler-Davis of Detroit will be in the First Lady’s box during the speech. Boler-Davis met President Obama last October when she led him and President Lee of South Korea on a tour of the General Motors Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping plants .

According to General Motors, she holds the distinction of being the first African-American woman to be appointed to the role of plant manager at a GM manufacturing plant.

She began working for GM in 1994 and has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Currently, she is the plant manager at General Motors Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping facilities. In that role, the White House says she is responsible for “overseeing the production of the first new small car program from General Motors to be manufactured in the United States.”

Another Michigan resident will also join the First Lady during the State of the Union Address. Bryan Ritterby of Holland had worked in the furniture industry for 25 years. He went to a community college for training and now works as a lab technician at Energetx, a company that makes materials used to manufacture wind turbine blades.