Jill Biden, ED.D.

As First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden focused on reaching out to all Americans, helping to bring our country together. 

She championed the causes that defined her public life: supporting military families, advocating for increased educational opportunities for all, working to end cancer as we know it, and advancing women’s health research. She also served as a leading messenger for the Biden-Harris Administration’s most urgent priorities, including: safely reopening schools after the pandemic’s shutdown, urging communities to get vaccinated against COVID-19, supporting President Biden’s economic agenda, and helping restore U.S. global relations. 

Dr. Biden viewed her role as First Lady as an act of service, and she worked to reach beyond the halls of the White House, connecting with people wherever they were. As First Lady, she traveled to more than 40 states, 200 towns and cities, and 19 countries. She was a messenger and listener, bringing the compelling stories of Americans and their experiences back to the White House. During her tenure as First Lady, she advanced the missions of key White House initiatives—Joining Forces, the Biden Cancer Moonshot, and the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, continued to champion education for all, and worked to open the doors of the White House—the People’s House—to more Americans than ever before. 

Since leaving the White House, Dr. Biden continues to devote her time to advancing women’s health, education, and the fight against cancer. She chairs the Women’s Health Network at the Milken Institute, a global initiative to accelerate research, innovation, and investment in women’s health. In Delaware, she advocates for cancer prevention and early detection and, as a lifelong educator, she teaches at a women’s prison. Alongside her husband, she is helping establish the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Presidential Center.

JOINING FORCES

Shortly into her tenure as First Lady, Dr. Biden announced the next phase and priorities of Joining Forces, her White House initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors. As First Lady, she visited over 30 military installations; worked with Joining Forces partners to support over 80 engagements with the military-connected community; and launched an interagency working group with the National Security Council, which secured over 80 commitments and proposals across the federal government to support military families. Through her Joining Forces work, she advocated for: increased economic opportunities for military spouses; additional educational programming and support for military children; more focus on health and wellness in the military community; and improved resources for caregivers and survivors, including military and veteran children in caregiving homes. 

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

Dr. Biden was a classroom teacher for 40 years. Advocating for increased educational opportunities for all students, of all ages, has always been close to Dr. Biden’s heart. By championing universal pre-school, teacher recruitment and retention, career-connected learning, and affordable options for education after high school, including free community college, Dr. Biden promoted quality education for everyone.

THE BIDEN CANCER MOONSHOT

Cancer affects every community and it’s a common dark thread for so many, including the Biden family. In recognition of World Cancer Day 2022, President Biden and Dr. Biden reignited the Biden Cancer Moonshot, and laid out bold goals and a vision to end cancer as we know it. As First Lady, Dr. Biden continued to work on behalf of American families confronting cancer, focusing on supporting patients and their loved ones during their cancer journeys; urging Americans to prioritize their cancer screenings; and reducing health inequities in diagnosis, treatment, research, and outcomes. 

ADVANCING WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH

President Biden and Dr. Biden launched the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research in November of 2023 with a clear goal: to fundamentally change how our country approaches and funds research on women’s health. Research on women’s health, especially for women in mid-life and beyond, had always been underfunded and understudied – but because of Dr. Biden’s leadership in this area, the disparity has started to change. In his 2024 State of the Union, President Biden called on Congress to make a transformative investment of $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. He also signed an Executive Order to advance Women’s Health Research and Innovation, directing the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to expand and improve research on women’s health. From its launch in November 2023 to the end of the Biden administration, the Initiative galvanized nearly $1 billion in funding to close gaps in research.

REIMAGINING THE WHITE HOUSE TOUR EXPERIENCE FOR VISITORS

When President Biden took office, Dr. Biden trained her educator’s eye on reimagining the White House public tour. She believed that the public tour, which accommodates approximately 10,000 visitors per week, could be a significant opportunity to educate students of all ages about the living history of the White House and our country – but until 2024, the public tour hadn’t seen significant improvements in decades. Because of Dr. Biden’s vision and leadership, and thanks to the generosity of the History Channel, the enhanced White House public tour now includes more educational and engaging elements along the tour route; incorporates more story-telling in the tour using technology and digital components; provides visitors with more historic context to their tour; and presents more opportunities for learning about our nation’s history, civics, and the lives of Presidents and first families, past and present. 

The reimagined, expanded White House public tour route now brings visitors further into rooms which were previously roped off, and now includes the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt held his famous fireside chats. This lasting contribution by Dr. Biden lives on at the White House, educating visitors for years to come.  

IN THE CLASSROOM

While serving as First Lady, Dr. Biden continued teaching English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, where she was a professor from 2009 through 2024. She was the first presidential spouse to maintain an independent career outside of the White House. 

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden was born on June 3, 1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey, to Bonny Jean Godfrey Jacobs and Donald Carl Jacobs. The oldest of five daughters, she grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. She graduated from Upper Moreland High School in 1969, then graduated from the University of Delaware with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1975.

In 1976, Jill Biden began teaching English at St. Mark’s High School in Wilmington. 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. She completed her first master’s degree in 1981.

In 1975, she met then-Senator Joe Biden. They married at the United Nations Chapel in New York City in 1977 and she became the mother of his two sons, Beau and Hunter. Their daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981.

Jill Biden taught English at Rockford Center psychiatric hospital while also pursuing a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University. In 1993, she accepted a teaching job at Delaware Technical Community College. During that same year, Dr. Biden’s advocacy for more cancer education and prevention began. After four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer, she launched the Biden Breast Health Initiative to educate Delaware high school girls about the importance of early detection and prevention efforts.

In 2007, she received a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. When her husband, then-Senator Joe Biden became Vice President and the Bidens moved to Washington, DC, Dr. Biden began teaching at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), and she continued to teach there through the end of 2024. 

DURING AND AFTER THE OBAMA-BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

As Second Lady for eight years, Dr. Biden focused on advocating for community colleges, military families, and the education of women and girls around the world. 

As the Obama-Biden Administration focused on recovering from the 2008 economic recession, Dr. Biden worked to underscore the critical role of community colleges in the nation’s economy. She hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges with President Obama and led the Community College to Career Bus Tour to highlight industry partnerships between community colleges and employers. She also became the honorary chair of the College Promise National Advisory Board, leading the effort to make community colleges free for hard-working students.

The daughter of a Navy Signalman and the mother of Major Beau Biden, a soldier in the Delaware Army National Guard, Dr. Biden has been a longtime advocate for military families. In 2011, she launched the first phase of 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 through the eyes of Dr. Biden’s granddaughter, Natalie, in the year her father, Beau, was deployed to Iraq.

She continued to advance community colleges and support military families through her work at the Biden Foundation after the Obama-Biden Administration ended.  During her tenure as Second Lady, Dr. Biden traveled to nearly forty countries, visiting military bases, hospitals, and refugee camps, and advocating for education and economic empowerment for women and girls. After the Obama-Biden Administration and as First Lady, Dr. Biden continued these efforts during her international travel.

After Dr. Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden lost their son Beau to brain cancer in 2015, they helped push for a national commitment to ending cancer as we know it through the White House Cancer Moonshot. Following the Obama-Biden Administration, then-former Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden continued their cancer work through the Biden Cancer Initiative. 
 She is the New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs, View from the East Wing and Where the Light Enters, and three children’s books, Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops, JOEY: The Story of Joe Biden, and WILLOW: The White House Cat. A mother, grandmother, and now great-grandmother, she lives with her husband in Wilmington, Delaware, with their cat, Willow, and puppies, Boo and Scout.