Valerie June Jarrett (née Bowman; born November 14, 1956) is an American attorney, businesswoman, and civic leader. She served as the senior advisor to the President of the United States and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs in the Obama administration from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. Prior to that, she served as a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project
Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Robert Robinson Taylor, was an architect who was the first accredited African American architect, and the first African American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz in 1956 as part of a program where American physicians and agricultural experts sought to help in the health and farming efforts of developing countries. When she was five years old, the family moved to London for a year, later moving to Chicago in 1963.Her parents were both African American; on the television series Finding Your Roots, genealogical research and DNA testing indicated that Jarrett also has French, Scottish, and Native American ancestry. As a child, Jarrett spoke Farsi and French.In 1966, her mother was one of four child advocates who created the Erikson Institute. The institute was established to provide collective knowledge in child development for teachers and other professionals working with young children.
She graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in 1974, and subsequently earned a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1978 and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.On May 22, 2016, Jarrett received an honorary degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.