Jill Tracy Biden was born on June 3,1951 and is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden.
85 Facts About Jill Biden
2.
Jill Biden was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president.
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Since 2009, Biden has been a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, and is thought to be the first wife of a vice president or president to hold a paying job during her husband's tenure.
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Jill Biden has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delaware, master's degrees in education and English from West Chester University and Villanova University, and returned to the University of Delaware for 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 married Joe Biden in 1977, becoming the stepmother of Beau and Hunter, two sons from Joe Biden's first marriage.
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Jill Biden and her husband have a daughter together, Ashley Jill Biden, born in 1981.
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Jill Biden is the founder of the Biden Breast Health Initiative non-profit organization, co-founder of the Book Buddies program, co-founder of the Biden Foundation, is active in Delaware Boots on the Ground, and with Michelle Obama is co-founder of Joining Forces.
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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 and 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.
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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 a little modeling for a local agency in Wilmington to supplement her income.
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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 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.
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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 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.
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Jill Biden taught in the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s.
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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.
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Jill Biden taught for three years at Claymont High School.
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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.
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In May 2009, Obama announced that Jill Biden would be in charge of an initiative to raise awareness about the value of community colleges.
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Jill Biden continued teaching two English reading and writing classes at NOVA in fall 2009.
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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.
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Jill Biden continued to teach at NOVA, and by 2011 held a permanent position as an associate professor, teaching three English and writing composition courses two days per week.
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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.
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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.
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Jill Biden continued to teach at NOVA, handling a full load of five classes during the Fall 2015 semester.
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Jill Biden meeting with officers of the New York Army National Guard in 2009.
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Joe and Jill Biden walking in the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC on January 21,2013.
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Jill Biden meeting with the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege in Bukavu in 2014.
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Jill Biden continued to teach full-time at NOVA after her husband left office, with a salary of close to $100,000.
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Jill Biden was selected to give the keynote address at a commencement for Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2017.
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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.
53.
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.
54.
Jill Biden took training in online teaching once the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States struck.
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Jill Biden indicated that she intended to resume teaching at NOVA even if her husband were to be elected.
56.
Jill Biden gave out her campaign e-mail address to voters in case they wanted to ask her follow-up questions.
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Jill Biden was heavily involved in the vice-presidential selection process that resulted in Senator Kamala Harris's being chosen.
58.
Jill Biden's husband was elected president and took office on January 20,2021.
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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.
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At the age of 69, Jill Biden was the oldest first lady to assume the role.
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Jill Biden resumed teaching at NOVA, albeit at first on a remote basis over Zoom due to the pandemic.
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Jill Biden has stayed up late in the White House quarters to review assignments she has given her students.
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Jill Biden has maintained her reputation as a tough grader who gave a lot of homework.
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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.
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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.
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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 as well.
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In January 2023, Jill Biden underwent Mohs surgery to remove two basal-cell carcinoma lesions from her face and chest.
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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 have 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.
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In June 2021, Joe and Jill Biden visited Cornwall in the United Kingdom to attend the 47th G7 summit.
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In July 2021, Jill Biden visited Tokyo, Japan 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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In October 2021, Joe and Jill Biden visited Vatican City.
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Jill Biden visited the families of American troops in Naples.
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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.
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Also in May 2022, Jill Biden visited Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica.
78.
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.
79.
The poll showed that Jill Biden is still more popular among Republicans than both the president and vice president.
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Jill Biden has been noted for having superior message discipline compared to her husband and has rarely produced gaffes.
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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.
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In September 2020, Jill Biden wore Stuart Weitzman's black boots with the word "vote" written on them.
83.
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.
84.
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.
85.
Jill Biden became the first First Lady to cover in the magazine's 155-year history.