Featuring Valerie Jarrett, Eric Holder, & Dee Dee Bridgewater

Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and Attn. She serves as Board Chair of When We All Vote and Co-Chair of The United State of Women. She also serves on the boards of Lyft, Ariel Investments, Sweetgreen, Ralph Lauren, Walgreens, 2U, the Innocence Project, Time’s Up, the Economic Club of Chicago and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Finding My Voice: When the Perfect Plan Crumbles, the Adventure Begins, was published in 2019 and updated in paperback in 2020.

Ms. Jarrett was the longest serving Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Ms. Jarrett worked throughout her tenure at the White House to mobilize elected officials, business and community leaders, and diverse groups of advocates. She led the Obama Administration’s efforts to expand and strengthen access to the middle class, and boost American businesses and our economy. She championed the creation of equality and opportunity for all Americans, and economically and politically empowering women in the United States and around the world. She oversaw the Administration’s advocacy for workplace policies that empower working families, including equal pay, raising the minimum wage, paid leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, affordable childcare, and a culture free from sexual harassment. She led the campaigns to reform our criminal justice system, end sexual assault, and reduce gun violence.

Ms. Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, Commissioner of Planning and Development, Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and practiced corporate, real estate, and finance law for ten years.

Ms. Jarrett also served as the director of numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards including Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, Vice Chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees, and as Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, USG Corporation, Inc., Navigant Consulting, Inc., Bank of America Illinois, 360 Communications, Inc., the Museum of Science and Industry, and Windows to the World Communications, Inc. She has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including TIME’s “100 Most Influential People”.

Ms. Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Dee Dee Bridgewater is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and Tony Award-winning stage actress. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie. She has received eight Grammy nominations for her albums, all of which she has produced, and won three. Bridgewater has also had a number of successful roles as both a film and stage actress, and won a Tony Award in 1975 for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz. She has performed with the Terence Blanchard Quintet at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and opened the Shanghai JZ Jazz Festival in 2009. In addition, Bridgewater served as a United Nations Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Bridgewater was the first American to be inducted to the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie and has received the Award of Arts and Letters in France, as well as the country’s 1998 top honor, Victoire de la Musique.