Valerie Jarrett proved that age is no barrier to excellence. January 2009 marked her official arrival in the White House as an advisor to President Obama. The 52-year-old woman became well-known as “the other side of Barack Obama’s brain” soon after, making history as a president’s senior advisor with the longest tenure.
Given her background, it is clear why Jarrett was recently recognized by Forbes as one of the 50 over 50 women making an impact in the world.
Now 67 years old, Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, to Barbara Bowman, an education expert, and Dr. James Bowman, a pathologist and genetic pioneer. Her father often traveled with his family to Africa and Iran to study blood diseases and genetics.
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According to The History Makers, Jarrett’s maternal grandpa was Robert Taylor, a Chicago housing icon. From Iran, she relocated to London and then returned to the U.S., where she completed her education at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts in 1974 after attending Shaesmith University of Chicago Lab School.
The trailblazer earned a psychology B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and a J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.
Jarrett started working as an associate in corporate banking at Pope, Ballard, Shepherd, and Fowle in Chicago. She later joined the real estate division of Sonnenschein, Carlin Nath and Rosenthal.
She has worked for the City of Chicago in a variety of capacities, including as deputy corporation counsel for finance and development under Mayor Harold Washington, continuing her career under Mayors Eugene Sawyer and Richard M. Daley, and holding the positions of deputy chief of staff for Mayor Daley and director of Leadership Greater Chicago for a year each.
As commissioner of planning and development for the city of Chicago, Jarrett oversaw three departments and received the Government Support Award from the Women’s Business Development Center. Mayor Daley appointed her chairperson of the Chicago Transit Authority in 1995, where she oversaw a $800 million budget. Jarrett was named vice president of the Habitat Company in the same year.
She was then voted to the Chicago Stock Exchange’s chairmanship for a three-year term in 2003 and became president of the Habitat Company in 2007.
In the West Wing, during her presidential appointment, she presided over the White House Council for Women and Girls and managed the Offices of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.
At the age of sixty-three, Jarrett accepted a new position from Obama in October 2020 as director of the Obama Foundation, situated in Chicago. The following year, she was promoted to CEO.
Along with her roles as director of corporate and nonprofit boards, she was also co-chair of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, chairman of the board of directors of the University of Chicago Medical Center, and director of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.
In 2008, Jarrett told CBS News that she first met the Obamas when she was trying to hire Michelle Obama. “I was trying to recruit her into city government when I was Mayor Daley’s deputy chief of staff,” she recalled.
Before accepting the job, Michelle Obama wanted Jarrett to meet her fiancée. “In fact the three of us had dinner – and you know she had some serious reservations about whether to leave the practice of law and leap into the mayor’s office into a political environment,” Jarrett recounted.
“And the two of them said ‘How about we have dinner and talk this through.’ And I knew that if that the conversation didn’t go well, the two of them were gonna go home and say, ‘Well, not so much. Maybe that’s not the right move.’ So at the end of the dinner I did say well, did I pass the test? And he laughed and of course she did join us and made a huge difference.”
