Valerie Jarrett reflects on her relationships with Barack and Michelle Obama, and discusses her service as senior advisor and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs throughout the Obama presidency. Jarrett outlines the organizational structure of the administration, recounts the internal deliberations and political conditions surrounding the administration's major activities, and provides details about her role in the Obama White House, including her facilitation of dialogue with outside advocacy organizations and interest groups to shape legislative initiatives, White House programs, and executive actions. Jarrett focuses on the connections between the White House, state and local governments, and ordinary people, and situates the Obama administration amid major historical forces including racism and racial identity, gender, climate change, and social and political polarization
Presidents--United States; Presidents--Staff.--United States; Presidential campaigns--United States; Jarrett, Valerie, 1956-; Obama, Barack; Obama, Michelle, 1964-; White House Council on Women and Girls (U.S.); Obama Foundation
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
232 pages
Note (Biographical)
Valerie Jarrett served in the Obama administration as senior advisor and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs from 2009 to 2017. Before joining the administration, Jarrett was co-chair of the Obama-Biden presi dential transition and senior advisor to the Obama 2008 presidential campaign. She also chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls and the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport. Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington as deputy corporation counsel for finance and development. She was deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama. Jarrett served as commissioner of the department of planning and development from 1992 through 1995, and she was chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority from 1995 to 2003. In 2021, she was named as president of the Obama Foundation
Note
Interviewed by Mary Marshall Clark on January 21, 2020, and February 25, 2020, by Dov Weinryb Grohsgal on July 7, 2021, and by Mary Marshall Clark on July 22, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Valerie Jarrett, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022