• In the Obama Administration, her official role is the Senior advisor and and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
• Before coming to DC, she was the CEO of The Habitat Company. To see the successes of her work in this role, please click here and watch the video.
• Jarrett was also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Chicago Medical Center from 2006-2009. During her reign as chair, she worked closely with Michelle Obama, and also was involved in a patient dumping scheme.

According to the University of Chicago Medical Center in 2006:

Valerie Jarrett joined the Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company, in 1995. Before that, she served for eight years in City of Chicago government posts, first as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development, then as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley in 1991 and finally, as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995.

From 1995 to 2003, Jarrett served as Chair of the Chicago Transit Board, the body that oversees the business of the Chicago Transit Authority, the provider of public transportation service to 1.5 million people in the City of Chicago and 38 suburbs. She is Chair of the board of the Chicago Stock Exchange and vice chair of the executive council of Metropolis 2020. She also serves on the board of directors for the USG Corporation, RREEF America II, Navigant Consulting, Inc., The Local Initiative Support Corporation, The Joyce Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She also is president of the board of the Southeast Chicago Commission.

Jarrett is also a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Science and Industry and Window to the World Communications Inc. She served as finance chair for the 2004 campaign for now U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and was the first treasurer for Obama’s PAC, the Hopefund.

A lifelong resident of Chicago’s South Side, Jarrett attended the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools before going on to receive a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1978 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. In January, Jarrett gave the keynote address at the University’s celebration of the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Her mother, Barbara Bowman (A.M., 52), taught in the Laboratory Schools while earning her graduate degree in Education. Jarrett’s father, James Bowman, is Professor Emeritus in Pathology and Medicine and the College. He is also the namesake for the University’s Bowman Society Lecture Series, which focuses on topics important to the health care of minority communities and supports diversity at the University.