Teacher Dr Jill Biden will succeed former model Melania Trump as First Lady of the United States.
Born Jill Jacobs in 1951, Dr Biden – who describes herself as an introvert – is the oldest of five sisters, and was raised by Bonny and Donald Jacobs just outside Philadelphia in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
Dr Biden has been an educator for more than 30 years and earned a Doctorate in Education from the University of Delaware in 2007. She also has two Masters’ degrees which she completed while working and raising a family.
When she was Second Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 she continued to teach English full-time at a community college in Virginia. She has previously said she plans to continue teaching if she becomes First Lady.
Dr Biden met the future US President Joe Biden in 1975 and they married in June 1977. Mr Biden’s first wife Neilia and baby daughter Naomi died in a car accident in 1972, which also left surviving sons Beau and Hunter injured. Dr Biden helped raise the two boys before giving birth to daughter Ashley in 1981. More than 40 years later in 2015, Beau died of a brain tumour aged 46. Dr Biden is now a grandmother.
On her Facebook profile, Dr Biden describes herself as a “lifelong educator, military mother, grandmother, sister, author, and wife”. As Second Lady, her work included bringing attention to the sacrifices made by military families, highlighting the importance of community colleges, and raising awareness around areas of particular importance to women including breast cancer prevention.
After the 2020 presidential race was called on November 7, First Lady-in-waiting Dr Biden posted a picture of herself with Mr Biden and said: “He will be a President for all of our families.”
