Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett was named senior advisor and assistant to United States President Barack Obama in January 2009. She had served as Obama's advisor long before that, helping the then-professor write and publish his first book and establish his political career in the city of Chicago. A longtime Chicago political insider, Jarrett is known for her network of connections within that city. As a member of the Obamas' inner circle, she was trusted by the president and valued for her management skills and political savvy. President Obama has said that her insistence that he follow his own instincts has been invaluable.

Background

Valerie Bowman Jarrett was born on November 14, 1956, in Shiraz, Iran. Her father, Dr. James E. Bowman, was a physician, geneticist, and pathologist. Her mother, Barbara T. Bowman, was an early childhood education expert who co-founded the Erikson Institute for child development. Jarrett's maternal great-grandfather, Robert Robinson Taylor, was the first African-American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her maternal grandfather was the first African American to lead the Chicago Housing Authority. Her father was the first African American to be granted a residency at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago and to receive tenure at the University of Chicago.

At the time of her birth, Jarrett's father was stationed in Iran, where he was working on regional healthcare infrastructures. Her family lived in Iran for six years and moved to London for a year before returning to Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1963. Jarrett was surrounded by family in Hyde Park, where over fifteen of her cousins lived. She attended the University of Chicago's Laboratory Schools and went on to boarding school at Northfield Mount Hermon in northern Massachusetts, where she graduated in 1974. During summer breaks, Jarrett accompanied her parents to various African nations as her father studied genetic-based diseases.

Jarrett received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford in 1978 and a doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Private to Public

Upon graduation, Jarrett returned to Chicago. She took a job in a private law firm, Pope, Ballard, Shepherd and Fowle, where she specialized in corporate banking. She left that firm for a position with Sonnenschein, Carlin Nath and Rosenthal, where she joined the real estate division. In 1987, dissatisfied with where she was in her career, Jarrett left the private sector to work for Chicago's Mayor Harold Washington as deputy corporation counsel for finance and development.

She stayed with the mayor's office after Washington's death in office, serving with the interim Mayor Eugene Sawyer and acting as Mayor Richard M. Daley's deputy chief of staff. She was determined to stay with the mayor's office in order to see that her development initiatives and plans for the city would materialize. In that role, she became a pivotal person in the Daley administration. She negotiated between the mayor's office and competing interests within the city, as well as those independents and progressives who felt that the Daley administration was not addressing their concerns.

In 1991, Jarrett interviewed Michelle Robinson to work with her in the mayor's office as one of three mayoral assistants. Concerned about the position and whether or not the mayor's office was progressive enough, Robinson asked Jarrett to meet with her and her fiancée, Barack Obama, to discuss the position and their concerns. The meeting sparked a lasting friendship, as Jarrett and Barack Obama connected on many levels, from their atypical childhoods, to their interest in Chicago-based community concerns. Michelle Robinson agreed to accept the position. The following year, the Obamas were married.

Because of her close ties within the Chicago community, Jarrett had developed a reputation as a trusted figure with a broad reach. Mayor Daley recognized this and named her Chicago's commissioner of planning and development. In 1995, Jarrett was given the responsibility of chairing the Chicago Transit Board. She served in this position for eight years and was responsible for an $800 million budget. In the same year, she was named the vice president of the Habitat Company, a private real estate management company that, alongside managing high-end properties, maintains and manages public housing units nationally. (Jarrett was later named the president and chief executive officer at Habitat in 2007.)

In 2004, Jarrett was named the chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange, a position she held until 2007. From 2006 to 2007, she was named the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Cultivating a Friendship with the Obamas

Throughout this time, Jarrett developed a close relationship with the Obamas. Michelle Obama followed Jarrett to the planning commission and then to the University of Chicago and finally to the University of Chicago Medical Center. They became increasingly close friends. They lived in the same area of Chicago, they traveled in the same social circles, and Jarrett became a confidant of Michelle's husband, Barack. She became officially tied to him politically when he ran for the junior US Senate seat in 2004, acting as his finance chair.

Barack Obama had become someone to watch when he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. His book, "Dreams of My Father," was published in 1995, the year he became a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Obama had also worked as a community organizer--working on get out the vote efforts and advocating for civil rights, equality opportunity housing, and economic development issues in Chicago. In 1997, Obama ran successfully for a seat in the state senate representing Chicago's south side. Jarrett proved to be a powerful advisor and ally to Obama and was someone who could open doors and cultivate connections for the young state senator.

Obama increased national interest in his political future following his address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In January 2005, Obama was elected to the Senate. In Washington, Senator Obama further cultivated his political reputation and increased his name recognition. It was here that Jarrett and Obama would begin laying the ground work for Obama's run for the office of president.

Road to the Presidency

Obama's presidential campaign, which included David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Michelle Obama, and other Chicago-area friends, became widely known for its organization and its ability to deliver a unified message. Reportedly, Jarrett was the member of the team best able to deliver bad news to the Obamas, reach out to those who may have been withholding support, and advise the campaign on its outreach to voters.

Jarrett's approach to African American voters differed from the traditional approach taken by most national-level political campaigns. Jarrett knew the strength of the African American Democratic establishment, led by figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But she is credited with developing new inroads into what she believed was an untapped segment of voters in the African American community. She focused the campaign's attention on black opinion leaders in business and the media and made an effort to communicate with black communities in smaller American cities and suburbs.

Jarrett was reportedly an invaluable advisor to Senator Obama when the presidential candidate had to address his connection to the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery rhetoric against white America threatened the success of the campaign.

After Obama's president election victory against Republican Party challenger John McCain, Jarrett served as co-chair of the administration's transition team. She would eventually accept a role as senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and agree to serve as a public liaison.

Personal Life

Jarrett married Dr. William Robert Jarrett in 1983. The couple, who have a daughter named Laura, divorced in 1988. Dr. Jarrett died of a heart attack in 1993.

Bibliography

Draper, Robert. "The Ultimate Obama Insider." The New York Times Magazine, 21 July 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26jarrett-t.html. 29 Mar. 2017.

Henderson, Nia-Malika. "Five Myths about Valerie Jarrett." The Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-valerie-jarrett/2014/11/14/fbffd40a-6ab6-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e‗story.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017.

Jarrett, Valerie. "Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett: The Exit Interview." Interview by Aaron Hicklin. The Advocate, 13 Jan. 2017, www.advocate.com/current-issue/2017/1/13/obama-advisor-valerie-jarrett-exit-interview. 29 Mar. 2017.

Kantor, Jodi. "Longstanding Obama Adviser Gets Senior Role at the White House." The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2008, \www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15jarrett.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017.