Educator, author, mother, and grandmother are just a few words that describe the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden. Having served as the second lady when President Biden was Vice President under President Obama, Dr. Biden has experience in advocacy. Specifically, Dr. Biden is most outspoken about issues related to education, the military, and cancer research. Within the policy area of education, Dr. Biden has mainly advocated for strengthening the role of community colleges as well as promoting education for girls and women.
Dr. Biden is the first first lady to hold a full-time job aside from her duties in Washington and the first first lady with a doctorate degree. Her doctorate is in educational leadership. She has been a teacher since 1976 and has taught in public schools and an adolescent psychiatric hospital. When Dr. Biden was the second lady, she took on a role as a professor of writing at Northern Virginia Community College. She will continue to teach at the community college now that her husband is the president.
As the First Lady, Dr. Biden will continue her work on the policy issues that she focused on in the past. She aims to advocate for teachers and help strengthen the education system, and she will also take initiative to help military families and boost cancer research and awareness. Dr. Biden plans to be very active in her role as first lady while maintaining her job as a professor, so she will definitely have a lot on her plate in Washington. Her commitment to her career is admirable, especially since it breaks the precedent set by former first ladies.
Dr. Biden met President Biden in 1975 and the two of them got married in 1977. Together, they have one daughter, Ashley, and Dr. Biden also became the mother of President Biden’s two sons from his first marriage, Beau and Hunter. President Biden always has something nice to say about Dr. Biden, whether it be her strengths as a mother or her accomplishments as an educator. He often refers to himself as “Jill’s husband.” The two of them have an evident admiration for one another, and they are very supportive of each other.
The Bidens have a close knit family, and Jill and Joe are the power couple at the top. Their kids and grandkids are their biggest supporters, and it was really nice to see that the family was able to bond and have fun together throughout the chaos of election season. In a Today Show interview from just before Inauguration Day, the Biden granddaughters spoke about how their grandmother is truly one of a kind, sharing a fun story about how she loves to pull pranks on the family. Dr. Biden’s intelligence and determination to help create change will be well-complemented by her fun-loving and caring nature as she takes on the role of first lady. It will be exciting to see what she and President Biden accomplish in the coming years.