Catching up with Valerie Jarrett

WASHINGTON – Former Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett headlines a City Club of Chicago lunch on Monday as her post-presidential life takes shape.

Here’s what is new:

• It’s now public on Monday: Jarrett, who has homes in Washington and Chicago, is working with the Chicago-based Obama Foundation in an advisory capacity. The foundation now has a branch office up and running in Washington — in the same building where former President Barack Obama has his official government post-presidential office.

Jarrett, I am told from one of her advisers, “will work with President Obama and the foundation leadership, including Chairman Martin Nesbitt and Chief Executive Officer David Simas, to help support the foundation team’s work as it develops the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago.”

She will not take a salary for her work where, the adviser said in an email, “she will help the foundation in fundraising, developing programming, and building support for the Center.”

• Jarrett last week joined the board of directors of Ariel Investments LLC founded by John Rogers Jr., the chairman and chief investment officer of the company. Rogers is very close to Obama and former first lady Michelle and is on the board of the Obama Foundation.

Jarrett’s later father, Dr. James Bowman, was one of Ariel’s original directors.

• To watch for: Jarrett’s adviser said she “plans to serve on additional corporate boards and pursue other business opportunities.”