Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett is chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of the Obama Foundation, as well as a senior distinguished fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. From 2009 to 2017, Jarrett was the senior advisor to President Barack Obama, making her the longest-serving senior advisor to a president in history. In this position, she oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She served as the chief executive officer of the Habitat Company in Chicago, the commissioner of planning and development for the city of Chicago, and deputy chief of staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and she practiced law for 10 years in the private and public sectors. Jarrett also served as the director of numerous corporate and nonprofit boards, including leadership roles as chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, vice chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and chair of Chicago Transit Board.

Jarrett is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward, published in April 2019. Currently, she serves as chairman of the board of Civic Nation and co-chair of tThe United State of Women. Jarrett is also on the boards of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corp.oration, Lyft, Inc., Sweetgreen, Ariel Investments, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, The Innocence Project, Sesame Workshop, and the Economic Club of Chicago. Jarrett is a member of Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women Advisory Board and is a senior advisor to ATTN. She received her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.