Portrait of Valerie Jarrett

Birthday profile

Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett, American government official

Born
November 14, 1956
Age in 2026
70
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1956

About Valerie Jarrett

Valerie June Jarrett (née Bowman; born November 14, 1956) is an American businesswoman, attorney and former government official who has been the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to President Barack Obama. She headed his White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Before serving in the White House, she was the chief executive officer of property developer The Habitat Company and a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project. == Early life and education == Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, during the Shah's rule, to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara T. Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist from Chicago, worked on regional health systems based at hospital in Shiraz in the 1950s. When she was five years old, the family moved to London for a year, then moved back to Chicago in 1962. Jarrett's father was the first African American to have a medical residency at St Luke's hospital in Chicago, and after his return to the US, to get professorial tenure at the University of Chicago medical school. Her maternal great-grandfather, Robert Robinson Taylor, was the first accredited African-American architect, and the first African-American student to enroll at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her maternal grandfather, Robert Rochon Taylor, was chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Valerie Jarrett was born

Valerie Jarrett was born in 1956. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1956

  • #1 song"Heartbreak Hotel" – Elvis Presley
  • Top movieAround the World in 80 Days
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookPeyton Place – Grace Metalious

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentDon Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series
  • Top headlineElvis Presley takes America by storm
  • Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1)
  • Defining fadElvis Presley mania
  • Notable inventionHard disk drive (IBM)
  • World population2.82 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (NBA)
  • U.S. population168.1M

1956 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Valerie Jarrett's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19562026
Gas$0.30$3.45/gal
Average home$11,700$435,000
Average income$6,500$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population168.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.