Part of The New Team.. Valerie Bowman Jarrett

As he prepares to take office, President-elect Barack Obama is relying on a small team of advisers who will lead his transition operation and help choose the members of a new Obama administration. Following is part of a series of profiles of potential members of the administration.

Name: Valerie Bowman Jarrett



Being considered for: A Cabinet post, perhaps as Secretary of Housing or Transportation, but more likely as a White House adviser. Ms. Jarrett is co-chairwoman of the Obama transition team and has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mr. Obama in the Senate.

Would bring to the job: Experience in negotiation, persuasion and conflict resolution; a long record of outreach to the African-American community; fierce, almost familial loyalty to Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, both of whom she has helped work through decisions and fix problems. No Washington experience.

Is linked to Mr. Obama: In too many ways to count. Mr. Obama is a man with many mentors, but she has been one of his most longstanding and influential tutors, navigating him through Chicago civic and political circles. Ms. Jarrett coached both Obamas at once — they first met when Mrs. Obama applied for a job with Ms. Jarrett in the Chicago mayor’s office — and she has guided them ever since.

In her own words: “I am a sounding board. I know him well. I know them both well. So I kind of know what makes them who they are. And I don’t have a portfolio, so I can come in really only looking at it from their perspective. I have never been through a campaign before on a national level. I’m not a pollster, I’m not a strategist. I’m freed up from all of that.” From a recent profile in Vogue.

Used to work as: Like Mrs. Obama, Ms. Jarrett was once an unhappy lawyer who fled a big firm for city government. She spent nearly a decade working for the city of Chicago, becoming deputy chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley, then his planning commissioner, then chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06jarrett.html