Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to Obama, Will Deliver Special Lecture

“Public service is a noble calling,” Valerie Jarrett, who was President Barack Obama’s longest-serving senior advisor, said in an interview with Psychiatric News. “I’ve spent half of my career in the private sector, and as much as I enjoyed it, there is no comparison to the experience that comes with public service and being a part of something bigger and more important than myself.”

Jarrett will present a special lecture at the Opening Session of this year’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The Opening Session will be held Saturday, May 18, at 4 p.m.; please note that it will not be held on its usual day, Sunday.

Her lecture will follow Opening Session ceremonies and the speeches presented by APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., and incoming President Bruce Schwartz, M.D.

Called “the ultimate Obama insider” by the New York Times, Jarrett is the author of Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward. The book is scheduled to be released on April 2, and a limited number of signed copies will be available at the Annual Meeting.

Speaking to Psychiatric News just days after the end of the government shutdown—in which some 800,000 furloughed government workers went without pay—Jarrett said too many Americans disparage government and public service. She criticized the Trump administration’s use of a government shutdown to try to force Congress to pay for a border wall—something Jarrett referred to as a “political vanity project.”

“I lived through a government shutdown [in 2013],” she said, “and I saw firsthand what it did to members of our team. I do not think public servants should be used as pawns in a political chess game.”

Recalling the political battle around passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Jarrett said it was a top priority of President Obama that treatment for mental and substance use disorders be covered at parity with general medical conditions. And she noted that the individual mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance made it affordable for insurance companies to offer mental health treatment at parity.

She excoriated the current administration’s efforts to roll back the ACA. “The most recent statistics suggest that for the first time in four years, the number of uninsured people is going up again,” she said. “I strongly oppose the steps the administration is taking to curtail the ACA.”

Jarrett said she especially worries about threats to erode benefits for women’s preventive reproductive care. “We know that one of the most important factors in economic mobility is whether a woman has a planned pregnancy,” she said. “To roll back the protections for women’s preventive care would have devastating repercussions.”

Stewart noted Jarrett’s work on the front lines during the passage of the ACA. As one of the chief advisers to President Obama, she had a view of how changing health care policies could benefit patients.

“Ms. Jarrett understands the importance of mental health to overall health and well-being and is the ideal speaker to begin the meeting’s dialogue on how the principles of disruption, engagement, and inclusion can work in a system that has a 175-year history of practice and tradition,” said Stewart. “I am confident she will also challenge us to think of ways to innovate and do even more to transform our systems of care to better serve those with mental illness wherever they enter. I look forward to hearing what I am sure will be a message of hope for the future of our field at our Opening Session.”

APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., added, “I am personally excited to welcome Valerie Jarrett to our Annual Meeting. She brings an insider’s perspective on how policy is made at the very highest levels.”

While at the White House, Jarrett oversaw the offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Today, Jarrett is a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. She also serves on the boards of Ariel Investments, 2U, Lyft, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

She is also chair of the board of When We All Vote, a nonprofit organization dedicated to civic engagement. (Michelle Obama is among the co-chairs). In comments to Psychiatric News, she said an urgent priority as the country moves toward the 2020 election is improving civic dialogue. “We have to get back to the higher ground,” she said. “We can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Jarrett said too many people—especially young people—live in an “echo chamber” where they might never hear opinions and ideas countering their own. She said When We All Vote is especially dedicated to reaching young people and encouraging them to be informed voters. “We know that when people learn to vote young, they tend to be lifelong voters.”

Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She served as the chief executive officer of The Habitat Company in Chicago, chair of the Chicago Transit Board, and commissioner of planning and development and deputy chief of staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. She also was chair of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

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

Jarrett said she is looking forward to speaking at APA’s Annual Meeting. “This is an audience I am really excited to talk to, because APA members are on the ground providing vital services every day,” she said. “Their voice is so important.” ■