Jill Biden: Educator, advocate and a new chapter after the White House

Dr. Jill Biden built a public life on teaching, advocacy and steady visibility: a community‑college instructor by training, she served as Second Lady from 2009 to 2017 and as First Lady from January 20, 2021 to January 20, 2025, and she took a leading role in education, military family initiatives and a new federal push on women’s health research. In the years since the White House, she has moved into a nonprofit and policy role focused on women’s health while recent legal and political developments have put parts of her personal history back in the headlines.

Background and career in education

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden was born June 3, 1951, and trained as a teacher, earning a BA from the University of Delaware, an MEd from West Chester University and an MA in English from Villanova University. She completed a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership at the University of Delaware in 2007. As an instructor she spent decades in public schools and colleges, including long service at Delaware Technical Community College and, from 2009 through 2024, at Northern Virginia Community College, where she taught English and composition.

Key facts:

• Ed.D., 2007, University of Delaware
• Taught at NOVA, 2009–2024
• Author of the 2019 memoir, Where the Light Enters

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Dissertation: Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs, University of Delaware, 2007
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Her classroom image — returning to in‑person instruction after the pandemic, holding evening office hours and signing student papers — was central to her public identity. Supporters say her continued teaching while serving as first lady underscored a belief that public life and professional purpose can coexist. Critics sometimes cast her classroom role as part of a political brand, a view she and allies have contested.

Policy priorities as Second Lady and First Lady

Education and community colleges

For decades she championed community colleges as engines of social mobility, emphasizing remedial instruction, workforce training and access for returning adult students. Those ties informed her public messaging, and they helped shape the White House’s attention to skills‑based and postsecondary education initiatives.

Military families and Joining Forces

Together with past first ladies, she advanced Joining Forces, a public‑private effort to help veterans, military spouses and caregivers. The program combined advocacy, nonprofit partnerships and targeted events to highlight care and workforce supports.

Cancer advocacy and the Biden Cancer Moonshot

Following the Bidens’ personal loss of Beau Biden to brain cancer, the family pushed a renewed national focus on cancer research. As first lady she continued that work, publicizing partnerships and events aimed at accelerating prevention and treatments.

White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research

In November 2023 the administration launched the first White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, led publicly by Dr. Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. The initiative aimed to correct longstanding gender gaps in medical research and funding, and by early reporting it had helped mobilize new federal and private commitments, including an initial public funding commitment put at $100 million toward priority research areas.

Post‑White House: Milken Institute and women's health

After leaving the White House, Dr. Biden accepted a leadership role at the Milken Institute. In April 2025 the institute launched a Women’s Health Network and named her its chair, a move she framed as a continuation of the White House initiative and an effort to marshal private, philanthropic and academic resources around underfunded areas of women’s health, from endometriosis to healthy aging.

Her supporters hail the transition as consistent with a lifetime commitment to educational and health causes and point to the potential for public‑private coalitions to move research and funding. Skeptics, including some conservative commentators, view the move through a partisan lens and have questioned the scale and independence of post‑government policy roles for former first ladies.

"I am honored to join the Milken Institute as we unite leaders around a shared mission," she said when accepting the role, framing the work as collaborative and cross‑sectoral.

Public reception and critiques

Jill Biden's public standing has been shaped by a combination of steady approval for visible programs and episodic controversy. Praise centers on her classroom identity, Americans who appreciate a first lady who continued to work, and her hands‑on approach to veterans and cancer issues. Critics have questioned aspects of political decision‑making inside the presidential family, and a small but vocal set of commentators at times leveled sharper accusations, especially after high‑profile developments related to the former president's health.

Examples of the competing views:

• Supporters: point to decades in the classroom, sustained veteran and education advocacy, and work to close research gaps in women's health.
• Critics: argue she was too protective of the president in some political moments and have sought greater transparency about inside decision‑making during the 2024 campaign cycle.

It is important to note, mainstream outlets and independent fact‑checking found no public evidence that would support criminal allegations connected to those criticisms; many of the sharper claims circulated on partisan platforms.

The Stevenson case: a personal history returns to public view

In early February 2026, prosecutors in New Castle County, Delaware, announced a grand jury indictment charging William "Bill" Stevenson, 77, with first‑degree murder in the Dec. 28, 2025 death of his wife, Linda Stevenson. Stevenson was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975; that earlier marriage has occasionally surfaced in profiles and reporting about Dr. Biden’s life. The indictment, and the local police release describing the December domestic‑disturbance response, returned attention to a chapter of her early life. Dr. Biden declined to comment through her office on the prosecution, and the case is proceeding through Delaware courts.

Reporters and editors working the story have emphasized the distinction between the defendant and Dr. Biden: the prosecution relates to a death in late 2025 and the weeks‑long local investigation that followed, it does not implicate Dr. Biden in criminal conduct, and she is not a party to the proceedings.

Timeline: roles and milestones

Multiple viewpoints and the record of verifiable fact

This profile aims to separate verifiable milestones, which include educational credentials, teaching tenure, White House programs she led, and the Milken appointment, from political commentary and unproven allegations. Verifiable items on record include:

• Her academic degrees and Ed.D. dissertation title, which are part of the University of Delaware record.
• Her teaching at Northern Virginia Community College through 2024, and public statements about finishing that semester.
• The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research and related federal funding mobilizations.
• The Milken Institute press release naming her chair of a Women’s Health Network in April 2025.
• The February 2026 indictment of William Stevenson in Delaware, and public reporting that Dr. Biden declined to comment.

At the same time, public debate about Dr. Biden’s political role — and the appropriate boundaries between personal loyalty and public responsibility — remains active, with clear differences between partisan commentary and corroborated reporting.

What to watch next

• Local court filings and calendar entries in New Castle County for updates in the Stevenson indictment.
• Milken Institute announcements and measurable program outcomes tied to the Women’s Health Network, including partnerships, research funding and convenings.
• Any public statements or writing by Dr. Biden reflecting on her post‑White House work or responding to recent developments.

Conclusion

Jill Biden’s public life has been defined by a combination of steady professional practice, cause‑based advocacy and an ability to translate a classroom identity into national visibility. Since leaving the White House she has focused on women’s health policy while maintaining ties to education and veterans’ causes. Recent legal events tied to a decades‑old personal relationship, and polarized political coverage, have returned attention to episodes from her past, but the public record continues to distinguish her professional and philanthropic work from unrelated criminal proceedings currently under way in Delaware.

Journalism note: this article summarizes facts from public records and reporting, and presents a range of perspectives drawn from reputable news outlets and institutional releases. Where claims remain unproven in the public record, they are reported as allegations or commentary rather than established fact.