Barack Obama is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is the first African American to have held the office and the first president born outside the continental United States. Obama previously served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.