Jill Biden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jill Biden
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Official portrait, 2023
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| First Lady of the United States | |
| In role January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025 |
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| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Melania Trump |
| Succeeded by | Melania Trump |
| Second Lady of the United States | |
| In role January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017 |
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| Vice President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Lynne Cheney |
| Succeeded by | Karen Pence |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jill Tracy Jacobs
June 3, 1951 Hammonton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
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| Children | Ashley Biden |
| Relatives | Biden family |
| Education | University of Delaware (BA, EdD) West Chester University (MEd) Villanova University (MA) |
| Signature |  |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Delaware Technical Community College Northern Virginia Community College |
| Thesis | Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs (2006) |
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator. She served as the first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025. She is married to President Joe Biden. Before that, she was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. This was when her husband was vice president.
Since 2009, she has been an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. She is thought to be the first wife of a vice president or president to have a paying job for most of her husband's time in office.
Biden has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delaware. She also has master's degrees in education and English from West Chester University and Villanova University. She later earned a doctoral degree in education from the University of Delaware. She taught English and reading in high schools for 13 years. She also taught teenagers with emotional disabilities at a hospital. After this, she was an English and writing teacher for 15 years at Delaware Technical & Community College.
Jill Biden was born in Hammonton, New Jersey. She grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She married Joe Biden in 1977. She became the stepmother to Beau and Hunter, Joe Biden's sons from his first marriage. Jill and Joe Biden also have a daughter together, Ashley Biden, who was born in 1981.
She started the Biden Breast Health Initiative, a non-profit group. She also helped start the Book Buddies program and the Biden Foundation. She is active in Delaware Boots on the Ground. With Michelle Obama, she co-founded Joining Forces. She has written a memoir and two children's books.
Contents
Early Life
Jill Tracy Jacobs was born on June 3, 1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey. She is the oldest of five sisters. Her father, Donald Carl Jacobs, was a bank teller. He was also a U.S. Navy signalman during World War II. He used the G.I. Bill to go to business school. Then he worked his way up in banking. His family name was Giacoppo before his father came from Sicily. The name was changed to Jacobs when they came to the United States. Her mother, Bonny Jean Jacobs, was a homemaker. She had English and Scottish roots.
As a child, Jill and her family lived in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. When she was eight, they moved to Mahwah, New Jersey. Her father was the CEO of the Mahwah Savings and Loan Association. In 1961, the Jacobs family moved to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. This is a suburb north of Philadelphia. Donald became the president and CEO of InterCounty Savings and Loan. He held that job for 20 years.
Her parents did not go to church. But Jill often went to Sunday services at a Presbyterian church with her grandmother. Later, Jill took classes at Abington Presbyterian Church. At age 16, she was confirmed.
Jill Jacobs always wanted to have a career. She started working at age 15. This included waitressing in Ocean City, New Jersey. She went to Upper Moreland High School. She has said she was a bit rebellious and enjoyed her social life. She also liked playing pranks. But she loved English class. Her classmates said she was a good student. She graduated in 1969.
Education and Career
Jacobs first went to Brandywine Junior College in Pennsylvania. She wanted to study fashion merchandising but did not like it. She married Bill Stevenson in February 1970 and became Jill Stevenson. He later opened a successful college bar called the Stone Balloon.
She then went to the University of Delaware. She chose English as her main subject. She took a year off from college and did some modeling. She and Stevenson separated in 1974 and divorced in May 1975.
She met Senator Joe Biden in March 1975. They met on a blind date set up by his brother. Joe was almost nine years older. But Jill was impressed by his formal look and good manners. After their first date, she told her mother, "Mom, I finally met a gentleman."
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware in 1975. She started as a substitute teacher in Wilmington. Then she taught high school English full-time for a year at St. Mark's High School. Around this time, she worked in Biden's Senate office for five months.
She and Joe Biden married on June 17, 1977. The wedding was at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City. Joe had asked her to marry him many times before she said yes. She was worried about being in the public eye. She also wanted to focus on her own career. She was also hesitant to raise his two young sons, Beau and Hunter. They had survived a car accident that killed Joe's first wife and infant daughter. Jill raised Beau and Hunter, and they called her Mom.
She kept teaching while working on a master's degree at West Chester State College. She earned a Master of Education degree in reading in 1981. The Bidens' daughter Ashley Blazer was born on June 8, 1981. Jill stopped working for two years to raise the three children.
She then went back to work. She taught English, was a reading specialist, and taught history to students with emotional disabilities. She taught at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s. Biden earned her second master's degree, a Master of Arts in English, from Villanova University in 1987. She taught for three years at Claymont High School. In the early 1990s, she taught English at Brandywine High School in Wilmington. She spent 13 years teaching in public high schools.
From 1993 to 2008, Biden taught English at the Stanton campus of Delaware Technical & Community College. She taught English composition and remedial writing. She focused on helping students feel confident. She said she felt she could make a big difference in their lives. She especially liked helping women who were returning to school.
Biden is the president of the Biden Breast Health Initiative. This group started in 1993. It gives free breast health awareness programs to schools and groups in Delaware. She started it after four friends were diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2007, Biden helped start Book Buddies. This program gives books to children from low-income families. She has also been active in Delaware Boots on the Ground, which supports military families. She runs five miles, five times a week. She has run in the Marine Corps Marathon and the Philadelphia Half Marathon.
Biden later went back to school for her doctoral degree. In January 2007, at age 55, she earned a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. Her paper was called Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs.
Role in 2008 Presidential Campaign
Jill Biden did not want her husband to run for president in 2004. But after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she urged her husband to run again. She said she felt things were already bad and she was against the Iraq War. She told Joe, "You've got to change this."
During Joe Biden's campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, she kept teaching during the week. She joined him for campaigning on weekends. She said she would focus on education as First Lady. She also said she would not be involved in Cabinet meetings.
When her husband was chosen as Barack Obama's running mate, she started campaigning more. She wore a Blue Star Mothers Club pin to honor Beau Biden's deployment to Iraq. She was not a trained political speaker. But she connected well with people. She also made appearances with Michelle Obama. Jill Biden continued to teach four days a week at Delaware Technical & Community College. She campaigned on long weekends and graded papers on the campaign bus.
Second Lady of the United States (2009–2017)
First Term as Second Lady
After Obama and Biden won the election, Jill and Joe moved into Number One Observatory Circle in January 2009. This is the official vice presidential home in Washington. As the new second lady of the United States, Biden wanted to keep teaching. In January 2009, she began teaching two English courses as an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). She was the first second lady to hold a paying job while her husband was vice president. She was called "Dr. Jill Biden" in White House announcements.
In May 2009, Obama announced that Biden would lead an effort to raise awareness about community colleges. Biden continued teaching two English classes at NOVA. In August 2010, Biden appeared as herself in an episode of Army Wives. This was part of her work to help military families.
In April 2011, she and Michelle Obama started Joining Forces. This is a national effort to show the needs of U.S. military families. In September 2011, Biden supported USAID's FWD campaign. This campaign raised awareness about famine, war, and drought in the Horn of Africa.
She continued to teach at NOVA. In Fall 2009, she became a full-time faculty member. In Fall 2011, she got a permanent position as an associate professor. She taught three English and writing classes two days a week. She tried to keep her teaching life normal. She shared an office with another teacher and held office hours. She also tried to make her Secret Service agents blend in. Her students often did not know who she was. They called her "Dr. B." She was known as a caring teacher who gave a lot of homework. Staff members remember her always carrying student papers on trips.
In February 2012, she led a "Community College to Career" bus tour. This tour showed how community colleges work with businesses.
Her life with her husband at Number One Observatory Circle was informal. It focused on family and their grandchildren. In June 2012, she published a children's book, Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops. It was about her stepson Beau's time in the military.
Second Term as Second Lady
After Obama and her husband were re-elected in November 2012, Biden began her second term as second lady in January 2013.
During this time, Biden continued to support military members. She visited the Center for the Intrepid for injured service members. She also attended the first Invictus Games in London.
In May 2015, her stepson Beau Biden died from brain cancer. She later said this loss was "totally shattering." She said she lost her faith for four years. But she later found faith again.
She was with her husband in October 2015 when he announced he would not run for president in 2016. She was disappointed because she believed he would have been a great president.
Biden continued to teach full-time at NOVA. She taught five classes in Fall 2015. In 2016, she joined her husband on a tour for Cancer Moonshot 2020. In March 2016, she welcomed American astronaut Scott Kelly back to Earth after his year in space.
Subsequent Activities
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The Bidens started the Biden Foundation in February 2017. This foundation helps them work on causes they care about. These include preventing violence against women, cancer research, community colleges, and military families. That same month, she became board chair of Save the Children. She said their focus on education fit with her life's work.
In June 2017, the couple bought a vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. They planned to host their family there. Jill Biden continued to teach full-time at NOVA after her husband left office. She gave keynote speeches at several community colleges. She told graduates that "if you can walk across this stage, you can do anything."
In May 2019, her memoir Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself was published. The book focuses on her family life. She wrote that being "Dr. B." (a teacher) was the role she felt most at home in. USA Today called it a "poignant memoir."
Role in 2020 Presidential Campaign
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Jill Biden was a key part of her husband's decision to run in the 2020 United States presidential election. She was very supportive of him running.
The Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign officially started on April 25, 2019. A magazine called Town and Country said that "Jill Biden Might Just Be Joe Biden's Greatest Political Asset."
Biden continued to teach at NOVA during 2019. She sometimes campaigned without her husband in early election states like Iowa. She gained attention in New Hampshire. She said that voters should choose the candidate who can win the election.
When Hunter Biden became a focus for Republicans, she spoke out. She said, "Hunter did nothing wrong."
Biden played a more active role in this campaign than in his past ones. For the first time, she took a break from NOVA for the spring 2020 semester. This allowed her to campaign full-time. She learned about online teaching when the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States started. She said she planned to teach at NOVA again if her husband was elected.
In the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, she sometimes made more campaign appearances than her husband. She gave out her email address to voters. In joint appearances, she sometimes spoke after him. She gained media attention at the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries. She physically blocked a protester from getting to him. She said, "I'm a good Philly girl."
In June 2020, she published the children's book Joey: The Story of Joe Biden. It showed him as "brave and adventurous" as a child. In July 2020, she spoke about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. She appeared in a video with her husband. She said that schools and parents want a clear plan for education during the pandemic.
She was very involved in choosing Senator Kamala Harris as the vice-presidential candidate. At the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention, Biden spoke from the classroom at Brandywine High School. She talked about how to make a broken family whole. She said it's done "with love and understanding and with small acts of kindness." During the general election, she campaigned in Pennsylvania. She stressed the importance of women voting.
First Lady of the United States (2021–2025)
Role and Continued Teaching
Jill Biden's husband was elected president and took office on January 20, 2021. She is the first spouse since Barbara Bush to be both Second Lady and First Lady. At 69, she was the oldest first lady to take on the role. She is also the first Italian American first lady. There was some public discussion about her preferred title, "Dr. Jill Biden," because she holds a doctorate in education, not medicine.
She continued teaching at NOVA, first remotely using Zoom due to the pandemic. This made her the first wife of a sitting U.S. president to hold a paying job outside the White House. For security, her classes at NOVA were often listed as taught by "staff." She stayed up late in the White House to grade student assignments. In September 2021, she returned to teaching in person at NOVA. She said, "thank God we all got off Zoom." Security for her classes became tighter. Students had to go through a metal detector. She kept her reputation as a tough grader who gave a lot of homework.
First ladies usually have causes they support. Biden's causes are military families, education, and health care. She might teach classes and then fly to an event as first lady on the same day. She said that to manage her professional life, family, and First Lady duties, "You have to have purpose while you're doing it, and it has to be organized."
Domestic Initiatives
The Joining Forces program, which she started with Michelle Obama, was brought back by Biden. She visited military bases and said that service members need to know their families are supported. She praised bases for having spaces for children with autism. During her time, Biden visited 34 military places. She worked with Joining Forces to hold over 70 events for military families. These events focused on jobs and other issues. In September 2021, her office and the U.S. National Security Council launched a committee. It aims to get federal government support for military families. In November 2021, Joining Forces joined other groups to start Hidden Helpers Coalition. This helps 2.3 million children of wounded or ill service members.
During her husband's first year, Biden led efforts to get free tuition for community college students. This proposal was part of the American Families Plan. It was also part of the proposed Build Back Better Act. This bill faced many challenges. In February 2022, Biden said she was "disappointed" that free community college tuition was removed from the bill.
Jill Biden supports COVID-19 vaccination. She toured the U.S. to promote it. She was often the main spokesperson for the vaccination effort. She visited areas known for being against vaccines. Biden herself got COVID-19 in August 2022 and September 2023. In January 2023, she had surgery to remove skin cancer spots from her face and chest.
Biden also supports women's rights. In March 2023, she hosted an event for Women's History Month. She asked men to help protect women's rights. With Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she hosted the International Women of Courage Award. This award honors women who show courage and leadership. In October 2023, she hosted the first "Girls Leading Change" event. This celebrated young women making a difference. In February 2024, Biden announced the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research. This provides $100 million for research into women's health.
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Jill Biden started a project to improve the White House public tour. She wanted to make it more accessible and educational. The old tour only showed a few rooms and focused on antiques. Biden said the old tours "weren’t dynamic." Her office worked for two years with other groups on the $5 million project. In October 2024, Biden showed the updated tour. The new tour has digital elements and historical information. It also includes insights into past presidents and their families. There are new 3D models of the White House showing its changes over time. Tourists also get to see more rooms. The tour also helps blind visitors.
By October 2022, Biden had visited 40 U.S. states as first lady. This was more than her husband had visited as president.
Foreign Trips
In June 2021, Joe and Jill Biden visited Cornwall in the United Kingdom for the 47th G7 summit. Jill Biden and the Duchess of Cambridge visited primary school students. They talked about early childhood education. In July 2021, Biden made her first solo trip abroad as First Lady to Tokyo. She met Japanese leaders and visited American athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. In October 2021, the Bidens visited Vatican City. They met Pope Francis to discuss world poverty and climate change. They also went to Rome for the G20 Leaders' Summit. Biden met with the wives of other leaders. She also visited military families in Naples.
Biden had visited Africa five times as second lady. Her first visit there as first lady was in February 2023. She went to Namibia and Kenya. In Windhoek, she spoke about democracy and women's empowerment. In Kenya, she saw the effects of the drought.
In May 2023, Biden and her granddaughter attended the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla in the UK. This made her the first First Lady to attend a British coronation. In June 2023, Biden and her daughter Ashley attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan. In the same month, she visited Egypt, Morocco, and Portugal. She focused on helping young people and promoting art. In July 2023, Biden visited Paris. She gave a speech to mark the U.S. rejoining UNESCO.
By May 2023, Biden had traveled more than her husband, the vice president, or the second gentleman.
Fashion and Style
In September 2020, Biden wore black boots with the word "vote" on them. These boots quickly sold out. At her husband's victory speech, Biden wore a dark-blue floral dress. This dress also sold out fast. In March 2021, her spokesperson said the First Lady's team would not comment on her clothes. In public, Biden often wears jeans and cashmere sweaters. She likes American designers who focus on sustainability. In February 2021, Biden posted a photo of herself shopping for cupcakes. She was wearing a scrunchie, and the photo became very popular online. Biden said she still does not understand why it got so much attention.
Writings
Books
- Jacobs-Biden, Jill (2006). Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs (Newark, DE: University of Delaware, Fall 2006)
- Biden, Jill (2012). Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops (New York: Simon & Schuster)
- Biden, Jill (2019). Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself (New York: Flatiron Books)
- Biden, Jill (2020). Joey: The Story of Joe Biden (New York: Simon & Schuster)
Images for kids
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Biden meeting with officers of the New York Army National Guard in 2009
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Biden and Michelle Obama accompanying Haitian first lady Elisabeth Delatour Préval in Port-au-Prince, three months after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake
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Joe and Jill Biden walking in the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2013
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Joe and Jill Biden dancing with members of the U.S. armed forces at the Commander in Chief's Ball.
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Biden meeting with the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege in Bukavu in 2014
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Biden giving a commencement address
See also
In Spanish: Jill Biden para niños
