Path to Power
Whitaker graduated from Grinnell College and went on to the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. While in medical school, Whitaker was president of the American Medical Students Association and twice testified before Congress regarding health insurance and minority health issues, according to his official biography.
Whitaker also earned a master’s degree in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health. It was on the basketball courts of Cambridge, Mass., that Whitaker first encountered the future president of the United States. Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times, “He and I played basketball together when he was getting his master's in public health at Harvard, while I was in law school there.”
After Harvard, Whitaker entered a prestigious residency in internal medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. He completed his residency in 1996 and began a two-year fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Chicago.
In 1998, Whitaker gained national recognition for creating Project Brotherhood, a program that went to barbershops to educate black men on preventing illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
Whitaker practiced medicine at Cook County's Stroger Hospital, where he was called a “rising star” by the Chicago Sun-Times. He was a member of their Collaborative Research Unit, focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and minority health, particularly for black men. At the time, he also joined the faculty at Rush Medical College in Chicago.
In 2003, Whitaker left Rush and joined the faculty at The University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health.
Illinois Public Health Department Director
The same year, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) named Whitaker director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Whitaker’s appointment may have been partially aided by a good word from his friend Obama to political fundraiser Tony Rezko. Rezko, a real-estate developer, both raised money for Blagojevich and screened candidates for state administration posts, The Washington Post said.
The recommendation came back to haunt Obama when Rezko was put on trial for bribery, forcing Obama to explain his ties to the fundraiser. “Somebody who I do remember talking directly to Tony about was Dr. Eric Whitaker," Obama told the Sun-Times in March 2008. "He had expressed an interest in that job. I did contact Tony, or Tony contacted me, and I gave him a glowing recommendation because I thought he was outstanding.''
Whitaker responded to questions from the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "I did not seek any position and was stunned when I was asked to interview for the IDPH director position.”
Rezko was convicted of influence peddling in June 2008. Blagojevich was taken into FBI custody on December 2008 for political corruption, including allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after he won the presidency. In December 2008, investigators said Obama had no knowledge of the matter.
University of Chicago Medical Center
In October 2007, Whitaker left the Department of Public Health to return to his alma mater, the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama was a vice president.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported, “When he was hired, U. of C. was seeking permission to expand its children's hospital — one of five expansions the university sought from the state while Whitaker was health director. All were approved by the planning board. Whitaker and the U. of C. said he had nothing to do with those approvals.
Whitaker was named to the new position of executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research to work on the hospital’s urban- health initiative, a program Michelle Obama helped create. The urban health initiative aims to find community doctors for low-income people on Chicago’s South Side.
After Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy in January 2007, Whitaker joined Obama friends Valerie Jarrett and Martin Nesbitt as a fixture on the campaign trail. In the last days of campaigning, the three “moved in lockstep with [Obama] from one dark Suburban to the next,” The Washington Post reported.
“My role now is to keep him loose,” Whitaker told the New York Times. “There’s a lot going on in his world.”
On Election Day, Whitaker joined a tight-knit group to play basketball with the future president. ''When he lost in New Hampshire and Las Vegas we didn't play, so we've not missed an election day since,'' Whitaker told the New York Times.
