Barack Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii and served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He has a background as a constitutional law professor and served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004 and as a U.S. Senator from 2005 to 2008. As President, Obama advocated for policies promoting compromise and established priorities around health care reform, economic recovery, and foreign policy changes including improved relations with Russia and the Islamic world.