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Jill Biden

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Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden
Second Lady-to be of the United States
Assuming office
January 20, 2009
SucceedingLynne Cheney
Personal details
Born (1951-06-05) June 5, 1951 (age 73)
Hammonton, New Jersey
SpouseJoseph Robinette Biden, Jr. (since 1977)
ChildrenAshley Biden
Beau Biden (stepson)
R. Hunter Biden (stepson)
Alma materUniversity of Delaware (D.Ed.)
West Chester University (M.Ed.)
Villanova University (M.A.)
University of Delaware (B.A.)
OccupationEducator

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 5, 1951)[1] is an American educator and the next Second Lady of the United States as the wife of Vice President-elect of the United States Joe Biden, who is currently a United States Senator from Delaware.

Early life

Jill Tracy Jacobs was born in Hammonton, New Jersey.[2] After moving around for a while while very young, she grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.[3] Her father, Donald C. Jacobs (c.1927–1999),[4] was a bank teller who became head of a savings and loan in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.[5] His family name had originally been Giacoppa before being anglicized.[5] Her mother, Bonny Jean Jacobs (c.1930–2008),[6] was a homemaker.[7][4] She has four younger sisters.[6] Her family was not very religious, but in ninth grade, she took classes on her own so she could join the Presbyterian church.[5]

She began working at age 15, including as a waitress at the Jersey shore, and always intended to have her own career.[5][8] She attended Upper Moreland High School, where she was somewhat rebellious and enjoyed social life, but always liked English class.[9] She graduated from there in 1969.[10]

Education and career, marriage and family

Jacobs enrolled in a junior college in Pennsylvania and began studying fashion merchandising, but did not like it.[5] She married someone she had been dating following high school.[5] She enrolled in the University of Delaware along with him, where she declared English as her major.[5] After two years, the couple grew apart and divorced, when she was a junior at Delaware.[5] She then took a year off from college.[5][8][11] She also did some modelling for a local agency in Wilmington around this time, but never made it a career.[5][12] Subsequently, she returned to college; she met Joe Biden when she was a senior at Delaware in March 1975.[2][8][13] They met on a blind date with Joe Biden's brother's help though it turned out that Biden had unknowingly fancied her, having seen her in a local advertisement.[8] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware.[14] She began her career teaching English in high school.[8]

Jill Jacobs and Joe Biden were married on June 17, 1977 at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City, about five years after Joe Biden's first wife and infant daughter died in a car accident[15][7][5] and after several times where she hesitated before accepting the commitment of raising his two young sons who survived the accident.[5] The sons were present on the altar at the ceremony.[13] She continued to teach and then, while pregnant, she received a Master of Education with a specialty in Reading from West Chester University in 1981.[5][16][14] Their daughter Ashley Blazer was born on June 8, 1981.[15] Living in Wilmington, Delaware, Jill Biden stopped working for two years while raising their daughter and his sons.[17]

She then returned to work, teaching English, acting as a reading specialist, and teaching history to emotionally disturbed students.[8] She also worked as a teacher in the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s.[7][5] In 1987, Biden received a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University.[7][14] During her husband's 1988 bid for the Presidency, she said she would continue her job of teaching emotionally disturbed children even if she became First Lady.[18] In all, she spent 13 years teaching in public high school,[8] including 3 years at Claymont High School.[5]

Since 1993, Biden has been an instructor at the Stanton/Wilmington campus of Delaware Technical & Community College.[14][11][8][19] There she teaches English composition and remedial writing, with an emphasis on instilling confidence in students.[20][11] She has said of teaching at a community college, "I feel like I can make a greater difference in their lives. I just love that population. It just feels really comfortable to me. I love the women who are coming back to school and getting their degrees because they're so focused."[11]

Biden is the president of the Biden Breast Health Initiative, a non-profit organization begun in 1993 that provides educational breast health awareness programs free of charge to schools and other groups in the state of Delaware.[21][22] Biden is also involved with Book Buddies, which gives books to low-income children, and Delaware Boots on the Ground, which supports military families.[20] She runs five miles five days a week, and has run in the Marine Corps Marathon.[8]

She later returned to school for her doctorate, studying under her birth name, Jill Jacobs.[17] She received a Doctor of Education in educational leadership from the University of Delaware in 2007.[7][23] Her dissertation Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs was published under the name Jill Jacobs-Biden.[23]

2008 Presidential campaigns

Following her strong dismay at George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, she urged her husband to run again for President.[11][19] During Joe Biden's 2008 campaign to be the Democratic nominee, she continued to teach during the week and would join him for campaigning on weekends.[19] She said that she would have taken an activist role in addressing education as her chief focus of concern as First Lady.[24] She also said that she was basically apolitical and would not sit in Cabinet meetings.[19]

Once her husband was selected to be Barack Obama's running mate, she began campaigning again. She wore a Blue Star Mothers Club pin in recognition of Beau Biden's deployment to the Iraq war.[11] She was not a polished political speaker, but was able to establish connections with the audience.[11] She also made some joint appearances with Michelle Obama.[12] Throughout the time her husband was running for vice president, Jill Biden continued to teach four days a week at Delaware Technical & Community College during the Fall 2008 semester, and then campaigned over the long weekend, while grading class papers on the campaign bus.[6][11][25] While she will be moving to the vice presidential residence in Washington as Second Lady of the United States, she plans to continue teaching at a Washington-area community college and has been weighing offers from them.[12][26][13] It has been rare for Second Ladies to work while their spouses were vice president.[12][26] Catherine Russell, a former adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was named Biden's chief-of-staff for her Second Lady role,[27] while Courtney O’Donnell, a former spokesperson for Howard Dean and Elizabeth Edwards, was named her communications director.[28]

References

  1. ^ "Jill Biden". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
  2. ^ a b Hale, Charlotte (2008-08-24). "Jill Biden is an educator and much more". The News Journal. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Meet Dr. Jill Biden". Progress Ohio.org. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  4. ^ a b "Donald C. Jacobs, 72". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1999-06-09. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Van Meter, Jonathan (November 2008). "All the Vice-President's Women". Vogue as presented on Style.com. Retrieved 2008-12-29. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Nathans, Aaron (2008-10-06). "Joe Biden's mother-in-law dies at 78". The News Journal. Retrieved 2008-10-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e Farrell, Joelle (2008-08-27). "Colleagues see a caring, giving Jill Biden". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2008-08-28. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Seelye, Katharine Q. (2008-08-24). "Jill Biden Heads Toward Life in the Spotlight". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-25. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Tasker, Annie (2008-11-07). "Jill Biden getting attention". Bucks County Courier Times. Retrieved 2008-11-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ Cosentino, Dom (2008-08-28). "Upper Moreland grad Jill Biden in campaign limelight". Bucks County Courier Times. Retrieved 2008-08-28. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Copeland, Libby (2008-10-23). "Campaign Curriculum". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-25. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ a b c d Lee, Carol E. (2008-11-27). "Jill Biden: Untraditional, unapologetic". The Politico. Retrieved 2008-11-28. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ a b c Evans, Heidi (2008-12-28). "From a blind date to second lady, Jill Biden's coming into her own". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2009-01-03. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ a b c d "Administrative, Instructional, and Student Services Personnel" (PDF). Delaware Technical & Community College. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  15. ^ a b "Timeline of Biden's life and career". Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  16. ^ Stern, Frank (2008-10-20). "The Quad talks with Jill Biden". The Quad. Retrieved 2008-12-29. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ a b Hale, Charlotte (2007-03-19). "Determined to stay in school" (fee required). The News Journal. Retrieved 2008-08-29. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Caroli, Betty Boyd (2003). First Ladies: From Martha Washington to Laura Bush. Oxford University Press. p. 297. ISBN 0-195-16676-0.
  19. ^ a b c d Norris, Michelle (2008-01-01). "Presidential Candidates' Spouses: Jill Biden". All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  20. ^ a b Gaouette, Nicole (2008-08-27). "Jill Biden has a low-key appeal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-08-28. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ Churnin, Nancy (August 23, 2008). "Obama's VP pick, Joe Biden, could heighten breast cancer awareness". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  22. ^ "About Us". Biden Breast Health Initiative. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  23. ^ a b Jacobs-Biden, Jill (2006). Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs (fee required, partial preview available). University of Delaware.
  24. ^ "Democrat Candidate Spouses: Jill Biden". Time. Retrieved 2008-08-23. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ Pleming, Sue (2008-11-03). "Jill Biden, teacher who avoids 'Washington scene'". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
  26. ^ a b Bosman, Julie (2008-11-21). "'Amtrak Joe' No More". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ Rucker, Philip (2008-11-25). "Biden Beefs Up Staff". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-12-02. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ Wagman, Jake (2009-01-06). "St. Louis native will speak for Jill Biden". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2009-01-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)


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