1. Jill Tracy Biden is an American educator who served as the first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025 as the wife of President Joe Biden.
98 Facts About Jill Biden
1. 2.
Jill Biden was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president.
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Jill Biden and her husband have a daughter, Ashley Jill Biden, born in 1981.
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Jill Biden has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delaware and master's degrees in education and English from West Chester University and Villanova University.
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Jill Biden returned to the University of Delaware and received a doctoral degree in education.
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Jill Biden taught English and reading in high schools for thirteen years and instructed adolescents with emotional disabilities at a psychiatric hospital.
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Jill Biden has published a memoir and two children's books.
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Jill Biden Tracy Jacobs was born on June 3,1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey.
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Jill Biden's mother, Bonny Jean Jacobs, was a homemaker of English and Scottish descent.
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Jill Biden's father was the CEO of the Mahwah Savings and Loan Association.
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Jill Biden's parents labeled themselves as "agnostic realists" and did not attend church, but she often attended Sunday services at a Presbyterian church with her grandmother.
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Jill Biden began working at age 15, which included waitressing in Ocean City, New Jersey.
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Jill Biden attended Upper Moreland High School, where, by her own later description, she was somewhat rebellious and enjoyed her social life, along with being a prankster.
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Jill Biden intended to study fashion merchandising but found it unsatisfying.
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Jill Biden married Bill Stevenson, a former college football player, in February 1970 taking the name Jill Stevenson.
16.
Jill Biden switched her enrollment to the University of Delaware becoming a student in its College of Arts and Sciences, declaring English as her major.
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Jill Biden took a year off from college and did modeling for a local agency in Wilmington to supplement her income.
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Jill Biden petitioned for a half-share in the Stone Balloon club, but the court case ended without it being awarded to her.
19.
Jill Biden graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware in 1975.
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Jill Biden began her career as a substitute teacher for the Wilmington public school system, then taught high school English full-time for a year at St Mark's High School in Wilmington.
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Jill and Joe Biden were married on June 17,1977, at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City.
22.
Jill Biden raised Beau and Hunter, and they called her Mom, but she did not formally adopt them.
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Jill Biden continued to teach while working on a master's degree at West Chester State College, taking one course per semester.
24.
Jill Biden graduated with a Master of Education degree, with a specialty in reading from West Chester in 1981.
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The Bidens' daughter, Ashley Blazer Biden, was born on June 8,1981, and Jill stopped working for two years while raising the three children.
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Jill Biden then returned to work, teaching English, acting as a reading specialist, and teaching history to emotionally disabled students.
27.
Jill Biden taught in the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s.
28.
Jill Biden received her second graduate degree, a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University, in 1987.
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Jill Biden was not considered a political person at the time, and during her husband's unsuccessful bid for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, she said she would continue her job of teaching emotionally disabled children even if she became the first lady.
30.
Jill Biden taught for three years at Claymont High School.
31.
Jill Biden is president of the Jill Biden Breast Health Initiative, a nonprofit organization begun in 1993 that provides educational breast health awareness programs free of charge to schools and other groups in the state of Delaware.
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Jill Biden began the effort after four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer that year.
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In 2007, Jill Biden helped found Book Buddies, which provides books for low-income children, and has been very active in Delaware Boots on the Ground, an organization that supports military families.
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Jill Biden has regularly attended Mass with her husband at St Joseph's on the Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware.
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Jill Biden said she would have taken an activist role in addressing education as her chief focus of concern as a potential first lady.
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Jill Biden wore a Blue Star Mothers Club pin in recognition of Beau Biden's deployment to Iraq.
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Jill Biden was not a polished political speaker but was able to establish a connection with the audience.
38.
In May 2009, Obama announced that Jill Biden would be in charge of an initiative to raise awareness about the value of community colleges.
39.
Jill Biden continued teaching two English reading and writing classes at NOVA in fall 2009.
40.
In September 2011, Jill Biden lent her support to USAID's FWD campaign, a push for awareness surrounding the deadly famine, war, and drought affecting more than 13 million people in the Horn of Africa.
41.
Jill Biden continued to teach at NOVA; in Fall 2009 she received a two-year appointment as a full-time faculty member, and in Fall 2011 she was given permanent position as an associate professor.
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Jill Biden made her position there as normal as she could, sharing a cubicle with another teacher, holding regular office hours for students, and trying to persuade her accompanying Secret Service agents to dress as unobtrusively as possible.
43.
Jill Biden did not cut back on her teaching schedule and made few solo campaign appearances.
44.
In May 2015, her stepson Beau Jill Biden died from brain cancer.
45.
Jill Biden was present at her husband's side in the Rose Garden on October 21,2015, when he announced he would not run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 2016 election.
46.
Jill Biden continued to teach at NOVA, handling a full load of five classes during the Fall 2015 semester.
47.
Jill Biden continued to teach full-time at NOVA after her husband left office, with a salary of close to $100,000.
48.
Jill Biden was selected to give the keynote address at a commencement for Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2017.
49.
Jill Biden gave the keynote address at a California teachers summit in July 2017, emphasizing the importance of communities supporting their teachers given the emotional and circumstantial stresses they often have to function under.
50.
Jill Biden played a more active role in this presidential campaign than she had in her husband's two prior ones, and for the first time, Jill Biden reluctantly took a leave of absence from NOVA for the spring 2020 semester so she could be on the campaign trail full-time.
51.
Jill Biden took training in online teaching once the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States struck.
52.
Jill Biden indicated that she intended to resume teaching at NOVA even if her husband were to be elected.
53.
Jill Biden gave out her campaign e-mail address to voters in case they wanted to ask her follow-up questions.
54.
Jill Biden was heavily involved in the vice-presidential selection process that resulted in Senator Kamala Harris's being chosen.
55.
Jill Biden's husband was elected president and took office on January 20,2021.
56.
Jill Biden is the first spouse since Barbara Bush to hold the positions of both Second Lady and First Lady and is the first one since Pat Nixon to hold them non-consecutively.
57.
At the age of 69, Jill Biden was the oldest first lady to assume the role.
58.
Jill Biden resumed teaching at NOVA, albeit at first on a remote basis over Zoom due to the pandemic.
59.
Jill Biden has stayed up late in the White House quarters to review assignments she has given her students.
60.
Jill Biden has maintained her reputation as a tough grader who gave a lot of homework.
61.
Jill Biden continued to advocate for the free community college tuition item and some Democrats in Congress pushed for it too once it became known that it might be eliminated.
62.
Jill Biden is an advocate for COVID-19 vaccination and toured the United States as a part of President Biden's campaign to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19.
63.
Jill Biden, who was fully vaccinated with two booster shots, contracted COVID-19 herself in August 2022 and went into isolation protocols; she subsequently encountered Rebound Covid.
64.
In January 2023, Jill Biden underwent Mohs surgery to remove two basal-cell carcinoma lesions from her face and chest.
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In February 2024, Jill Biden announced the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research, a $100 million federal funding for research and development into women's health, which is led by the first lady and the White House Gender Policy Council.
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Jill Biden said in November 2023 that the initiative grew out after a meeting with Maria Shriver, a women's health advocate and former California first lady.
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In October 2021, Jill Biden visited Virginia to deliver "last-minute stump" speeches for the Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, in his race against Republican challenger and his successor Glenn Youngkin.
68.
Jill Biden criticized Republican opposition of an assault weapons ban and more spending on climate change.
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In July 2022, Jill Biden expressed frustration with the challenges her husband has faced as his administration has sought to address a range of issues.
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Jill Biden has played a role in the hiring of people within the administration's press personnel and has criticized them when she felt they were not sufficiently protecting her husband's image.
71.
Jill Biden initiated an overhaul of the White House public tour to make the tour more accessible, interactive and educational for visitors.
72.
Jill Biden initiated the revamp after learning that the public tour had not seen any significant improvements in decades.
73.
In October 2024, Jill Biden unveil the upgrade of the tour.
74.
In June 2021, Joe and Jill Biden visited Cornwall in the United Kingdom to attend the 47th G7 summit.
75.
In July 2021, Jill Biden visited Tokyo in her first solo trip abroad as the first lady.
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Jill Biden visited American athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games and attended the Olympics opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.
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Jill Biden visited the families of American troops in Naples.
78.
In May 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jill Biden made a trip to Romania and Slovakia, visiting with Ukrainian women and children refugees and asking questions of workers from aid organizations.
79.
In July 2023, Jill Biden visited Paris to give a speech to mark the official return of the United States to UNESCO.
80.
In July 2024, Jill Biden led the American delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France.
81.
Jill Biden visited American athletes at an Olympic training center in Paris.
82.
In December 2024, Jill Biden conducted final foreign trip as the first lady.
83.
Jill Biden visited Italy, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France.
84.
Jill Biden visited her paternal family's ancestral hometown of Gesso, Messina.
85.
Jill Biden met Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi, mother of the UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.
86.
In Qatar, Jill Biden visited to the Qatar Foundation and Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar to highlight the two countries' interests in education and health.
87.
Jill Biden attended a dinner banquet hosted by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned to celebrate the wedding of Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani and Sheikha Fatima bin Nasser bin Hassan Al Thani at the Al-Wajba Palace in Doha.
88.
Jill Biden was the keynote speaker at the 2024 Doha Forum.
89.
In October 2021, Jill Biden was placed the seventh most popular first lady out of twelve recent first ladies from an online survey poll by Zogby Analytics.
90.
The poll showed that Jill Biden is still more popular among Republicans than both the president and vice president.
91.
Jill Biden has been noted for having superior message discipline compared to her husband and has rarely produced gaffes.
92.
However, one did occur at the July 2022 conference of Latino advocacy organization UnidosUS, when Jill Biden claimed Latino Americans were as "unique" as tacos.
93.
Jill Biden did commit what the New York Times termed an "unforced error" in April 2023 when, after attending the highly watched championship game of the 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, she extended both the losing Iowa Hawkeyes as well as the winning LSU Tigers an invitation to the White House traditionally only extended to winners.
94.
In September 2020, Jill Biden wore Stuart Weitzman's black boots with the word "vote" written on them.
95.
At her husband's victory speech in Wilmington, Jill Biden wore an Oscar de la Renta dark-blue floral dress designed by Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim.
96.
On February 13,2021, Jill Biden posted a photo on Twitter of her shopping for cupcakes in Washington, DC while wearing a scrunchie, which went viral.
97.
Jill Biden immediately rallied to her husband's side, praising him at an after-debate watch party by saying "You answered every question, you knew all the facts," and saying that he would stay in the race.
98.
Jill Biden, meanwhile, was resentful at the number of Democrats and friends who were publicly abandoning her husband.