Jill Biden has secured a new role after her four years in the White House: leading a California-based think tank’s initiative focused on advancing women’s health.
“From endometriosis to healthy aging, the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research made important investments in research and development, while making clear it will take collaboration across industries to bring these innovations to scale,” Biden said, according to a Milken Institute press release published April 29. “I am honored to join the Milken Institute as we unite leaders around a shared mission: for women everywhere to benefit from the lifesaving, world-changing research we know is possible.”
The Milken Institute describes itself as a nonpartisan economic think tank based in Santa Monica, dedicated to addressing “financial, physical, mental, and environmental health” by uniting leaders to develop solutions for global challenges. Biden will serve as the chair of the think tank’s new Women’s Health Network.
Biden, an educator with a doctorate in education, prioritized several initiatives as first lady, including the Biden Cancer Moonshot plan, the Joining Forces program for veteran families and caregivers, and the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
She recently participated in the Milken Institute’s 28th annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, alongside notable figures such as Trump administration Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, as reported by the Los Angeles Daily News.
According to the institute’s press release, Biden’s role will focus on “galvanizing participation, collaboration, and shared action in the Women’s Health Network to improve women’s health and wellbeing.”
In 2023, former President Joe Biden signed a presidential memorandum establishing the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which Jill Biden led. The initiative sought to increase funding and research for women’s health, addressing gaps in medical studies that historically excluded women.
At the time, the Biden administration argued that “TOO MANY medical studies have focused on men and left women out,” noting that treatments, dosages, and medical textbooks often prioritize male physiology.
During the Milken Institute conference, Jill Biden shared that her husband had been eager to allocate federal funds to women’s health research.
“So one of the things we did was we got to work right away,” she said. “Joe said, ‘You know, let’s infuse – really, the federal government with money.’ In one year, we put in $1 billion to advance women’s research.”
She added, “And we worked a lot through the (National Institutes of Health) and the way that they did research, and we made sure that they disaggregated the data and that they separated the research on women and men differently, and we worked with (the Department of Defense) DOD – they put a lot of money into women’s research – and then we put a lot of money in to de-risk the investment. So there were a lot of things that, really, private equity wasn’t willing to take on because it was too risky, and we thought, let’s push this forward, and let’s try to find answers more quickly.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Milken Institute for additional comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Before her role as first lady, Jill Biden taught at Northern Virginia Community College from 2009 until December 2024, when she concluded her final semester as her husband prepared to leave office.
Her new position comes as political books analyzing the Biden administration are being released, with some detailing concerns about the president’s age and mental acuity during his tenure.
For instance, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, set for release in July, reportedly reveals that Biden’s team opted against a cognitive test in early 2024 to avoid fueling age-related speculation. Another book, Chris Whipple’s Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, claims White House staff limited Biden’s interactions to prevent missteps that could amplify concerns about his mental sharpness.
