WASHINGTON — White House aide Susan Sher earned more than half a million dollars from the University of Chicago Medical Center in 2009, when she left to join the Obama administration only a few weeks into the year, according to a newly released financial disclosure.
Sher was general counsel and vice president for community and external affairs at the medical center before taking a job as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff on Jan. 19, 2009. In that calendar year, the medical center gave Sher $511,000 — $49,000 in unused holiday and vacation pay, $149,000 in salary and bonus pay and $313,000 in a payout of a supplemental executive retirement plan.
Sher now also serves as a White House lawyer and assistant to the president. She is a longtime friend of the first lady, who once worked as vice president for community and external affairs at the medical center.