Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett
CEO Obama Foundation

Valerie Jarrett is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of the Barack Obama Foundation. She is also a Senior Distinguished Fellow at The University of Chicago Law School. She 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.

She serves as Board Chairman of Civic Nation and Co-Chair of The United State of Women. Jarrett also serves on the boards of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Sweetgreen, Inc., Ariel Investments, The University of Chicago, Sesame Street Workshop and The Economic Club of Chicago. Jarrett also serves on the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Advisory Board, the Bank of America Enterprise Executive Development Council, and the Microsoft Advisory Council.

Ms. Jarrett was the Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2009-2017, making her the longest serving senior advisor to a president in history. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Ms. 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, Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and she practiced law for ten years in the private and public sector. She also previously served as the director of numerous corporate and not-for-profit 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.

Ms. Jarrett has also received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” Award. Ms. Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Obama Foundation

Our mission at the Obama Foundation is to help people turn hope into action—to inspire, empower, and connect them to change their world.

Day in and day out, we’re supporting and connecting values-based changemakers around the globe, by working to create a world where girls have equal opportunities to pursue their dreams through access to education, and by fostering safe and supportive communities where young men of color have clear pathways to opportunity.

Hope will have a new homebase at the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago where we’re building the Obama Presidential Center. It’s the manifestation of our hope for a strong, thriving South Side of Chicago, where we act to bring more opportunity, investment and public spaces to our community that, in turn, nurtures future generations of leaders in our own backyard.

The words wrapped around the Museum building reflect President Obama’s remarks on the Edmund Petus bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches. “Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”

Together, by inspiring those who inspire others, we can achieve it and we hope you will join us.