Who is Jill Biden? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden

Age: 72 Years, 72 Year Old Females

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Joe Biden (m. 1977), Bill Stevenson (m. 1970 – div. 1976)

father: Donald C. Jacobs

mother: Bonny Jean Jacobs

children: Ashley Biden

Born Country: United States

First Ladies American Women

Height: 1.68 m

Ancestry: British American, Italian American

Notable Alumni: West Chester University

U.S. State: New Jersey

More Facts

education: University Of Delaware, Villanova University, West Chester University

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Childhood & Early Life

Jill Biden was born as Jill Tracy Jacobs on June 3, 1951 in Hammonton, New Jersey ,to Donald C. Jacobs, a bank teller, and Bonny Jean Jacobs, a homemaker. She is the eldest of five sisters who spent much of their childhood in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

Despite coming from a family not deeply rooted in religion, she took classes and joined the Presbyterian Church on her own. She was also very much focused to be independent and did odd jobs like waiting tables at the Jersey Shore when she was only 15.

While she was a defiant student with an active social life at Upper Moreland High School in Montgomery County, she loved the English subject. After completing her graduation in 1969, she enrolled into a fashion merchandising course in a junior college in Pennsylvania, but did not find it satisfying.

She later entered the University of Delaware to study English as her major, but postponed the course for a year to work as a model for a local agency in Wilmington. She eventually returned to college and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975.

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Early Career

Jill Biden began her career teaching English at high school level in the late 1970s and also worked for five months at Joe Biden's Senate office. She later resumed her teaching job and also earned Master of Education degree with a specialty in Reading from West Chester University in 1981.

Following a two-year break to give birth to her daughter, she returned to teach English and history to emotionally disturbed students. For five years during the 1980s, she taught at the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital.

In 1987, she returned to college to earn another Master of Arts degree, this time in English, from Villanova University. By the time her husband ran for the Presidency in 1988, she had already taught in public high schools for 13 years, of which three years were spent at Claymont High School.

She joined as an instructor at the Stanton/Wilmington campus of Delaware Technical & Community College in 1993, and taught English composition and remedial writing there for the next 15 years. Also in 1993, she founded the Biden Breast Health Initiative, which provides educational breast health awareness programs in Delaware.

She once again returned to the University of Delaware to complete her Ph.D. and published her dissertation, 'Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs', in 2006. The following year, she earned her Doctor of Education degree in educational leadership under her birth name Jill Jacobs.

Position as the Second Lady

Jill Biden encouraged her husband, Joe Biden to run for the Presidency again after George W. Bush won the reelection in 2004. She also helped in his 2008 campaign during the weekends, while still teaching throughout the week.

After Joe was selected as the running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, she also made joint campaign appearances with Michelle Obama. She became the Second Lady of the United States in 2009 after Obama won the Presidential election and her husband became the Vice President.

Even after moving to Number One Observatory Circle, the vice presidential residence in Washington, she continued to teach at Washington-area community colleges. She was appointed an adjunct professor at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), in January 2009.

To help her with her responsibilities as the Second Lady, she had eight staff members including chief of staff Catherine Russell, communications director Courtney O’Donnell, and policy director Kirsten White. In May 2009, she was tasked with raising awareness about the value of community colleges by President Obama.

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She gave commencement speeches at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York in June 2009 and at the University of Delaware in January 2010. In August that year, she made a guest appearance in an episode of Lifetime's 'Army Wives' to raise awareness of military families.

In April 2011, along with First Lady Michelle Obama, she co-founded Joining Forces, a national initiative to showcase the needs of U.S. military families. Later in September, she provided support to USAID's FWD campaign that sought to raise awareness about the deadly famine, war, and drought in the Horn of Africa.

She earned a full-time position at NOVA in 2011 and continued to work like other teachers despite her position in the White House. She published the children's book, 'Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops', in June 2012.

She became the Second Lady for another term after Obama and her husband won the 2012 re-election. She continued to support military personnel. She also continued to teach fulltime at NOVA and later gave commencement addresses at Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2017 and at Bishop State Community College in May 2018.

Achievements

Jill Biden is the first Second Lady who continued to work fulltime while her husband served as Vice President.

In June 2014, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at Villanova University, one of her alma maters.

Family & Personal Life

Jill Biden got married for the first time to former college football player Bill Stevenson in February 1970. She had contributed to his Stone Balloon college bar in Newark, Delaware, but failed to get half share in the bar after they parted ways few years later.

She met Joe Biden on a blind date set up by his brother at a time when she was fighting a fierce divorce battle. He was also nursing a broken heart after losing his first wife and college sweetheart, Neilia, and their infant daughter in a car accident three years back.

Immediately after meeting him, she had told her mother that she had finally met a gentleman, but kept declining his proposals worrying about the commitment of raising his two surviving sons. They finally got married on June 17, 1977, at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City, and welcomed their daughter, Ashley Blazer, in June 1981.

Jill Biden Biography