Jill Biden

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was also the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president.
Biden has a bachelor's degree in English and a doctoral degree in education from the University of Delaware, as well as master's degrees in education and English from West Chester University and Villanova University. She taught English and reading in high schools for thirteen years and instructed teens with emotional disabilities.
Biden is the founder of the Biden Breast Health Initiative, a non-profit organization. She is also the co-founder of the Book Buddies program and the Biden Foundation and active in Delaware Boots on the Ground. With Michelle Obama, she is the co-founder of Joining Forces. Biden has written a memoir and two books for children and has been socially active in the Beau Biden Foundation.
Biography
Early life and education
Jill Tracy Jacobs was born on June 3, 1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey, to Bonny Jean Godfrey Jacobs and Donald Carl Jacobs. The oldest of five daughters, Jacobs grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia.
Jacobs graduated from Upper Moreland High School in 1969, then graduated from the University of Delaware with a bachelor's degree in English in 1975.
Career
In 1976, Jacobs began teaching English at St. Mark's High School in Wilmington, Delaware. She then became a reading specialist at Claymont High School. At that time, she was also pursuing a Master of Education with a specialty in reading from West Chester University. Jacobs completed her first master's degree in 1981.
Biden taught English at Rockford Center psychiatric hospital while also earning a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University. In 1993, she started teaching at Delaware Technical Community College. During that same year, Biden's began advocating for cancer and education.
After four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer, she launched the Biden Breast Health Initiative to educate high school girls about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and prevention efforts.
In 2007, she received a Doctor of Education from the University of Delaware. In 2009, when her husband became vice president, the Biden family moved to Washington D.C., where Biden began teaching at Northern Virginia Community College.
Marriage and family
In 1975, she met then Delaware Senator Joe Biden. They married at the United Nations in New York City on June 17, 1977, and she became the stepmother of his two sons, Beau and Hunter. Their daughter, Ashley Biden was born in June 1981.
2008 United States presidential election
In August 2008, Illinois Senator Barack Obama announced that Biden would be his running mate for vice president. Biden was officially nominated for vice president on August 27, 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In November 2008, her husband was elected the 47th vice president.
Second Lady of the United States (2009-2017)
Biden became the second lady of the United States succeeding Lynne Cheney when her husband inaugurated as the 47th vice president of the United States on January 20, 2009. During her husband's vice presidency, Biden focused on advocating for community colleges, military families, and the education of women and girls around the world.
Biden has been a longtime advocate for military families. In April 2011, she launched Joining Forces with First Lady Michelle Obama, a White House initiative to support service members, veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. She also released a children's book in 2012, Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops, the story of their family's experience with deployment of her stepson, Beau Biden when he was deployed to Iraq. Biden later published another children's book, Joey: The Story of Joe Biden.
During her term as second lady, she traveled to nearly forty countries, visiting military bases, hospitals, and refugee camps, and advocating for education for women and girls.
Biden continued to advance community colleges and support military families through her work at the Biden Foundation after her husband's term ended as vice president.
2020 United States presidential election
On April 25, 2019, her husband announced his candidacy for president for the 2020 presidential election. During the 2020 election, Biden was heavily involved in her husband's presidential campaign throughout 2019 and 2020. She appeared in multiple states campaigning with her husband and giving speeches to their supporters.
Biden delivered a speech on the second night of the convention from the classroom at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where she had taught English from 1991 through 1993.
Biden's speech was focused on both family and education. She talked about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how it had impacted education, families and the economy. Biden also spoke about the personal death that her husband had experienced such as the deaths of his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and first born and infant daughter Naomi Christina Biden, who both died in a car crash in 1972, and the death of his son Beau Biden, who died from brain cancer in May 2015.
On November 7, 2020, her husband was the elected the 46th president of the United States.
First Lady of the United States
Biden became the first lady of the United States succeeding Melania Trump, when her husband inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021. At the age of 69, Biden is the oldest woman to serve the role, and is also the first Italian American first lady. Biden is the first woman since Barbara Bush to hold both titles as second and first lady, and is also the first woman since Pat Nixon to serve both titles non-consecutively.
During her first two years of her husband's presidency, Biden traveled to over 40 states and territories, over 100 cities, and ten other countries. She continued supporting issues such as supporting military families and equal education.
Biden has advocated for two White House initiatives, Joining Forces and the Cancer Moonshot and also urging adults and children to protect themselves and their communities by getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
As first lady, Biden continued teaching English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has been a professor since 2009. She is the first presidential wife to maintain an independent career and job outside of the White House during her husband term as president.
References
Other websites
Dr. Jill Biden: First Lady
Joining Forces | The White House
1951 births
Living people
American teachers
First Ladies of the United States
Second Ladies of the United States
Joe Biden
Educators from New Jersey
Educators from Wilmington, Delaware
People from Ocean City, New Jersey