How Dr. Jill Biden's Career as an Educator Helps the Biden Family Stay Strong

From Town & Country

• Dr. Jill Biden married future President Joe Biden at the age of 26, and has been by his side ever since.

• Her career as an educator has helped her marriage stay strong, despite the pressure of being in the public eye. "I'm glad she kept her profession," the President said in a recent interview.

• The First Lady is also passionate about cancer resources and military families.

Given Joe Biden's lengthy political career and former role as Vice President, his family has spent significant time in the spotlight. The President's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is known by many for her decades-long career as an educator, her advocacy work as Second Lady, and for being one half of a political power couple.

In her short tenure as First Lady, she's already put her stamp on the position. As an educator herself, she's making an effort to highlight the work of teachers across the country, and the particular difficulties they've faced as classes have gone digital amid the pandemic; she's also taken steps to spotlight military families and cancer patients. All this, without taking a break from her job as an English teacher at Northern Virginia Community College.

Indeed, Jill Biden has much more to her than her relationship with Joe. Below, find everything you need to know about the First Lady.

Jill was raised in Pennsylvania, and moved to Delaware for college.

Biden, who is 67, was born Jill Tracy Jacobs in Hammonton, New Jersey, and later moved to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The eldest of five sisters, Jill was raised by her father Donald, who worked at a savings and loan bank, and Bonny, a homemaker. Jill graduated from Upper Moreland High School in 1969, and then headed to a junior college in Pennsylvania to study fashion merchandising, according to Vogue. But the fashion path didn't stick, and soon Jill was on to her next act.

In February 1970, Jill married Bill Stevenson, and the two decided to enroll in the University of Delaware together. The couple drifted apart throughout college, and soon divorced. Around the same time, Joe Biden was working through heartbreak of his own: just weeks after being elected senator in 1972, his wife, Neilia, and 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident. (Joe's other two children, Beau and Hunter, were in the car but survived).

She met Joe on a blind date.

In 1975, Jill and Joe met on a blind date coordinated by Joe's brother. Despite the fact that Jill was still in college and Joe was a senator with two children (and nine years Jill's senior), their connection was instant. "We went out to see A Man and a Woman at the movie theater in Philadelphia, and we really hit it off," Jill told Vogue about their first date. "When we came home...he shook my hand good night. I went upstairs and called my mother at 1:00 a.m. and said, 'Mom, I finally met a gentleman.'"

Joe proposed to Jill five times before she finally accepted. "By that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work," Jill said. "Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn’t have them lose another mother. So I had to be 100 percent sure."

They married in June 17, 1977 at the United Nations chapel in New York City in an intimate wedding—with Beau and Hunter at the altar with the couple. "The way they thought of it, the four of us were getting married," Joe later wrote in his memoir, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

In 1981, Jill and Joe welcomed their daughter Ashley, and the Bidens raised their three children in Wilmington, Delaware. As a senator, Joe famously commuted back and forth from Washington to Wilmington daily so he could spend time with Jill and their children. Now, the couple have five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Maisy, Natalie, and Hunter.

Jill and Joe's enviable relationship has stood the test of time. On the campaign trail in 2008, Joe publicly called Jill “drop dead gorgeous” and jokingly added that he married up. And on Valentine's Day this year, Joe posted a sweet tribute to his wife of over 40 years on Instagram. "Happy Valentine’s Day to the love of my life and the life of my love," Joe captioned the photo. "I love you, Jilly."

She's had a lengthy career as an educator.

After graduating from University of Delaware in 1975, Jill started working as an English teacher in local public schools and at a psychiatric hospital. Jill also earned two master's degrees—one in reading from West Chester University in 1981, and a second master's in English from Villanova University in 1987—while working and raising her family. Jill taught English and worked as a reading specialist in Delaware public schools, and later taught English Composition at Delaware Technical and Community College, a position she held for 15 years. In 2006, Jill went back to school for yet another degree, and earned a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007.

As second lady, she continued working as a full-time professor at Northern Virginia Community College—even more notable because Jill is thought to be the first second lady to hold a paying job during her husband's time as Vice President, according to Los Angeles Times.

Jill is continuing to teach as First Lady.

Jill is working two jobs: First Lady and English professor. Given that she worked as a full-time educator while Second Lady, doing double duty wasn't too big of an adjustment.

She revealed her intention to keep her post at Northern Virginia Community College well before the election. "If we get to the White House, I’m going to continue to teach. It’s important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions and lift up their profession," Jill said on CBS Sunday Morning in August 2020.

Biden believes that having her own life and work, outside of her husband's shadow, makes a major difference in her well-being. She does not think that her career impacts her ability to be a great political collaborator.

“I knew if I let any time-lapse, I would be sucked into Joe’s life. I can have my own job, my own life, but also work on issues,” she told People in 2009. “I can have it all, really.”

Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa recently told the Washington Post that “out of respect for the privacy of her students and to preserve the integrity of her classroom,” Dr. Biden will keep her teaching career separate from her work as First Lady. The paper also quoted some of her previous students, who noted that she tends to skirt around questions about her husband and her role in his political career while in the classroom.

The President believes the First Lady's career as an educator has helped them stay strong, as a couple and as individuals. In an interview with People, he explained, "I've read all that data as well about families under pressure, and that's why I'm glad she kept her profession. It's really important that she's an educator, although she took off two years when we first got married because the boys were little. It's important that she has the things that she cares a great deal about, her independence. And yet we share each other's dreams."

Jill is a military mom, and has focused on helping military families.

In addition to promoting education, Jill is focused on supporting military families. The cause is close to her heart: Beau Biden served in the military for a number of years. Back in 2011, Jill and first lady Michelle Obama launched Joining Forces, a nationwide campaign to help veterans returning from war and military spouses find career opportunities.

Jill also wrote a children's book for military families titled Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops, which was published in June 2012. The book was inspired by the experience of Jill's granddaughter Natalie when her father, Beau, was deployed to Iraq.

Like Joe, Jill works on various cancer initiatives.

The Biden family has been heavily involved in cancer research and care initiatives for decades. It's an emotional cause for the family: Beau was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013, and died two years later at the age of 46.

After Beau's death, Joe and Jill quickly became the face of a national effort to end cancer. Specifically, Joe was tapped by Obama to lead the White House Cancer Moonshot in 2016. But Jill's involvement in cancer prevention started long before Beau's diagnosis. After four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993, Jill founded the the Biden Breast Health Initiative in Delaware, with the primary goal to educate young women on the importance of early cancer detection.

The Bidens have continued their work in the world of cancer research since leaving the White House with the Biden Cancer Initiative, an organization that brings together cancer researchers, health care providers, and patients to develop clinical trials, detection, care, and treatment plans.

Jill is a known prankster.

"Things are so serious that I like to add a little humor," Jill once said while campaigning on behalf of Obama and Biden in 2008. At a rally that year, Jill put a plastic rat on the podium where Joe was speaking—and then put the same rat on Joe's pillow later that night.

And the First Lady loves running.

Jill has opened up about her love of running through the years. She first got into the sport after she participated in a Komen Race for the Cure in the early 1990s, and has kept up the activity ever since. Her daily exercise regime includes a five mile run at a nine to 10 minute pace five days a week, along with a little bit of weight training, Jill explained to Runner's World.

Once she became Second Lady, Jill adjusted to running with the Secret Service by her side. "I usually have someone ahead of me and someone behind me," Jill said. "I just say to them, 'I need to pretend you’re not here,' because I love to run by myself, and they’re pretty respectful of that."

Jill was supportive of her husband's 2020 campaign.

Jill is no stranger to the campaign trail, and despite having never seen herself as a public figure, she has grown into the role of supportive political spouse. She even once described campaigning as a "family business." Joe's 2016 presidential campaign plans were detailed when Beau tragically died, but now the former Vice President has entered the 2020 race—with Jill's support.

Before Joe officially announced his candidacy, the Washington Post reported that Jill was supportive of a potential of a 2020 campaign, despite having been "opposed to some past presidential runs." Another Biden insider revealed to the New York Times that the entire Biden family is on board with Joe's 2020 ambition—adding that Jill is "enthusiastically so."

And during the campaign, Jill was one of his biggest supporters—and a defining presence on the campaign trial. Joe's former chief of staff Ron Klain told the Washington Post that Jill would be a "critical asset" to Joe's potential presidential campaign. "Internally she is—next to his sister—his most trusted adviser," Klain said. "She has a good feel for what works and does not work for him, and does a great job of keeping spirits up."

Just hours after Joe made his campaign announcement, Jill shared her excitement for Joe's candidacy on Twitter. "It's official!" Jill wrote in a Tweet. "Excited and proud that @JoeBiden is running for President #Joe2020 #TeamJoe." Jill also changed her profile picture on Twitter to a portrait with Biden's campaign logo front and center.

She spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Much of the Democratic National Convention's second night focused on Jill Biden. The former second lady was introduced with a video, featuring her family members, friends, and aides describing her character, interests, and goals. Jill and Joe Biden told the story of how they met and began dating and Joe relayed Jill's importance in rebuilding his family after the tragic death of his first wife and young daughter. Jill's family also spoke about her love for running, teaching, and pulling pranks on unsuspecting bystanders—an anecdote describing how Jill brings home dead snakes to scare people pretty much stole the show.

Following the video, Jill returned to her old classroom to address the nation, though noted that this year, school looks different than ever before. Many students are attending classes virtually and, for schools returning in person, some educators are scared about putting themselves and their families at risk.

“You can hear the anxiety that echoes down empty hallways,” Dr. Biden said. “There’s no scent of new notebooks or freshly waxed floors. The rooms are dark as the bright young faces that should fill them are now confined to boxes on a computer screen.”

As COVID-19 continues to take its toll on the country, alongside an overdue racial reckoning and prevalent political division, Jill then spoke about bringing the nation back together.

“How do you make a broken family whole?” she asked. “The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness. With bravery. With unwavering faith.”

Dr. Biden concluded her speech by praising her husband, describing his capability, compassion, and strength. She argued that Joe Biden can bring the country back together, just like he did for his own family.

"The burdens we carry are heavy, and we need someone with strong shoulders," Jill said. "I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours. Bring us together and make us whole, carry us forward in our time of need, keep the promise of America for all of us."

Jill is very protective of her husband.

Jill has often shown her commitment to her husband's political career, and remains one of her husband's biggest supporters.

At Biden's Super Tuesday rally, two women stormed the stage where Biden was speaking, holding “let dairy die” signs. The Anti-Dairy protestors, however, did not stand a chance against the former second lady. Jill, along with Biden's senior advisor, Symone Sanders, quickly jumped into action, physically restraining the protestors. Jill used her body to block the activist from her husband, protecting him from possible danger.

As one can imagine, the photos and video from this defensive act quickly went viral.

Jill was quickly lauded on social media, with users calling her a "badass" and a "warrior." Relatedly, this is not the first time Jill has physically protected her husband from protesters. According to ABC News, in February 2020, Jill personally escorted out a man who was heckling and filming Joe at a campaign event.

"I thought I’ve got to do something right now," Jill told the anchors of The View. "You’ve got to protect those you love, right?"

You Might Also Like

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• What Your Favorite Champagne Brand Says About You

• Beauty Gurus Share Their Makeup Secrets for Older Women