March 20, 2011 - 4:37pm
Senior White House advisor Jarrett to speak at Law School commencement
BY ESHWAR THIRUNAVUKKARASU
- Charles Dharapak/AP
Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett will be the keynote speaker for this year’s Law School spring commencement.
Jarrett, a University Law School alum, will deliver the address on May 8 at 2 p.m. in Hill Auditorium, according to a press release from the school. Her visit to Ann Arbor will come one week after President Barack Obama’s spring commencement address to University undergraduates.
"I am very excited to return to the Michigan Law campus and congratulate this year's graduating class," Jarrett said in the press release. "Some of the best times of my life were spent in Ann Arbor, and this is an incredible honor, not just as an alumna, but as somebody who's very familiar with how much we need these smart, talented and committed scholars to help us confront the many challenges facing our country."
Jarrett, who served as the finance chair for Obama’s Senate bid in 2004 and as a senior advisor during his presidential campaign, is now the senior advisor to the president. She also currently heads four White House departments and coordinates business outreach efforts at the White House.
A University Law School graduate in 1981, Jarrett eventually went on to work for the Habitat Co. — a residential property management firm with properties in Chicago, Ann Arbor and other places around the Midwest — as its president and CEO before entering the political arena.
During her time in Chicago, Jarrett practiced law at two firms and chaired several corporate boards, including the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Chicago Transit Board. She also served as the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
"Selection of Jarrett as the Law School commencement speaker continues the school's tradition of inviting accomplished, high-profile Law School graduates to Ann Arbor to help usher new graduates into the professional world," Law School Dean Evan Caminker said in the release.
"We're absolutely delighted to invite Valerie Jarrett back to Michigan Law to address our graduating students," he added. "In so many ways, she personifies the many avenues open to our graduates as they enter the legal world, the business world, the political world — or, in Ms. Jarrett's case, a progression including all three.”
“We know our graduates will benefit from her remarkable breadth of experience, and we look forward to hearing what she has to say," Caminker said in the release.
