Valerie Jarrett: Senior Advisor to President Obama
Posted on 09. Nov, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in Law, Scholarly Celebrations
Valerie Bowman Jarrett (born November 14, 1956) is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. She is also a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader. Prior to that she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.
Education
Jarrett graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon, a New England boarding school, in 1974. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. As a child she spoke Persian and French.
Personal
Jarrett was born to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman in Shiraz, Iran, where her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children as part of a program where American doctors and agricultural experts sought to help jump-start developing countries’ health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, returning to Chicago in 1963.
In 1966 her mother, Barbara Taylor Bowman, was one of four child advocates that created the Erikson Institute. The Institute was established to provide advanced knowledge in child development for teachers and other professionals working with young children.
In 1983 Jarrett married Dr. William Robert Jarrett, son of famed Chicago Sun-Times reporter Vernon Jarrett. She attributes her switch from a private to a public career to their daughter Laura’s birth and her own desire to do something that would make the daughter proud. Laura is a graduate of Amherst College and a Harvard Law School student.
To one reporter’s e-mailed question about her divorce, she replied, “Married in 1983, separated in 1987, and divorced in 1988. Enough said.” In a Vogue profile, she further explained “We grew up together. We were friends since childhood. In a sense, he was the boy next door. I married without really appreciating how hard divorce would be.” William Jarrett died of a sudden heart attack in 1993.
Career
Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development.
Jarrett continued to work in the mayor’s office in the 1990s. She was Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from a private law firm. Jarrett served as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995, and was Chair of the Chicago Transit Board from 1995 to 2005.
Business Administration
Until joining the Obama Administration, Jarrett was the CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company which she joined in 1995. She has been replaced by Mark Segal, a lawyer who joined the company in 2002, as CEO. Daniel E. Levin is the Chairman of Habitat, which was formed in 1971. Jarrett was a member of the board of Chicago Stock Exchange (2000–2007, as Chairman, 2004–2007).
She is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and a Trustee of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Jarrett serves on the board of directors of USG Corporation, a Chicago based building materials corporation.
Jarrett’s previous year’s income, in a 2009 report, was a $300,000 salary and $550,000 in deferred compensation from The Habitat Executive Services, Inc. The Wall Street Journal also reported she disclosed payments of more than $346,000 for service on boards of directors that reflect her political ties, and work in Chicago real estate and community development. She was paid $76,000 for service as a director of Navigant Consulting, Inc. a Chicago-based global consulting group with governmental clients. She received $146,600 from USG, and $58,000 to serve on the board of Rreef American REIT II, a real estate investment trust based in San Francisco. The Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc., paid her $34,444.
Advisor to President Barack Obama
Jarrett is one of President Obama’s longest serving advisors and confidantes and was “widely tipped for a high-profile position in an Obama administration.”
| “ | Unlike Bert Lance, who arrived from Georgia with President [Jimmy] Carter and became his budget director, or Karen Hughes, who was President [George W.] Bush’s communications manager, Ms. Jarrett isn’t a confidante with a particular portfolio. What she does share with these counterparts is a fierce sense of loyalty and a refusal to publicly say anything that may reflect poorly on the candidate — or steal his thunder. | ” |
On November 14, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama selected Jarrett to serve as White House Senior Advisor and for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Jarrett is one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama. She is Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, managing the White House Office of Public Engagement (formerly the Office of Public Liaison), Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Office of Urban Affairs, and Chairs the White House Commission on Women and Girls, and White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport.
Obtained from wikipedia and youtube.
More Related posts:
- Dr. Nichole Pinkard: Senior Research Associate @ University of Chicago
- Antenor Firmin: Haitian Scholar and Anthropologist who predicted Barack Obama's Presidency over a century ago
- Charles Ogletree: Renowned Harvard Professor & Successful Trial Lawyer
- Dr. Arthur J. Bond: Electrical Engineer & Founding Advisor of NSBE
- Voxunion.com's FreeMix Radio: FMR3: Black + Power ? Obama
