Jill Biden
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden[1] (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator who has been the first lady of the United States since 2021 as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president. Since 2009, she has been a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, and is believed to be the first wife of a vice president or president to hold a salaried job during the majority of her husband's tenure.
"Jill Jacobs" redirects here. For the Jewish activist, see Jill Jacobs (rabbi).
Jill Biden
Joe Biden
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Bill Stevenson(m. 1970; div. 1975)
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, and returned to the University of Delaware for a doctoral degree in education. She taught English and reading in high schools for thirteen years and instructed adolescents with emotional disabilities at a psychiatric hospital. Following this, she was an English and writing instructor for fifteen years at Delaware Technical & Community College.
Born in Hammonton, New Jersey, Biden grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She married Joe Biden in 1977, becoming the stepmother of Beau and Hunter, two sons from Joe Biden's first marriage. Biden and her husband also have a daughter together, Ashley Biden, born in 1981. She 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. She has published a memoir and two children's books.
Early life
Jill Tracy Jacobs was born on June 3, 1951,[a] in Hammonton, New Jersey.[2] She is the oldest of five sisters.[3] Her father, Donald Carl Jacobs,[4] was a bank teller and U.S. Navy signalman during World War II who used the G.I. Bill to attend business school and then worked his way up in the banking field.[3] His family name had been Giacoppo (or some variation thereof);[b] before his father, and others in the family, had emigrated from the Sicilian village of Gesso in Italy.[5] The name had then been changed to Jacobs,[5] about a month after the family had entered the United States.[11] Her mother, Bonny Jean (Godfrey) Jacobs,[12] was a homemaker[4] of English and Scottish descent.[13]
As a child, she and her family lived in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, and relocated when she was eight to Mahwah, New Jersey.[14] Her father was the CEO of the Mahwah Savings and Loan Association.[14] In 1961, the Jacobs family moved to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, a northern suburb of Philadelphia,[3] and Donald became the president and CEO of InterCounty Savings and Loan in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia.[14] He held that position for twenty years.[14]
Her parents labeled themselves as "agnostic realists" and did not attend church, but she often attended Sunday services at a Presbyterian church with her grandmother.[15] Later, Jacobs independently took membership classes at nearby Abington Presbyterian Church and, at age 16, was confirmed.[8][16]
Jill Jacobs always intended to have a career.[17] She began working at age 15, which included waitressing in Ocean City, New Jersey.[3][8][17] She 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.[18][3] However, she has recalled that she always had loved being in English class,[18] and her classmates have said she was a good student.[3] She graduated in 1969.[19]
Biden and Michelle Obama accompanying Haitian first lady Elisabeth Delatour Préval in Port-au-Prince, three months after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake
Joe and Jill Biden walking in the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2013
![Joe and Jill Biden dancing with members of the U.S. armed forces at the Commander in Chief's Ball. Silk blue gown by Vera Wang.[95]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Vice_President_Joe_Biden%2C_right%2C_dances_with_U.S._Army_Staff_Sgt._Keesha_Dentino_as_Jill_Biden%2C_left%2C_dances_with_Navy_Petty_Officer_3rd_Class_Patrick_Figuero_at_the_Commander_in_Chief%27s_Ball_at_the_Washington_130121-A-TT930-055.jpg/188px-thumbnail.jpg)
