Jill Biden has officially ended her teaching career at a Virginia community college, announcing her retirement just weeks before leaving her role as First Lady.
President Joe Biden’s wife, who has taught for over 40 years, revealed on Monday that she had taught her final class at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Alexandria last week. The surprise announcement came during a virtual “thank you” event with teachers tuning in from across the country.
“Being your first lady has been the honor of my life. But being your colleague has been the work of my life,” she said. “Last Thursday, I taught my last class of the semester and my final class ever at Northern Virginia Community College.”
“I will always love this profession, which is why I continued to teach full time while serving as your first lady,” said Jill Biden. She was joined during the event by teachers’ union presidents Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Becky Pringle of the National Education Association.
Jill Biden, who taught English and writing at NOVA for 15 years, made history as the first First Lady to maintain a full-time teaching career while in the White House.
The announcement comes as she and President Joe Biden prepare to leave the White House in just over five weeks. This follows President Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign after a poor debate performance against Republican candidate Donald Trump earlier this year.
It remains unclear whether Jill Biden, 73, will retire completely from teaching or pursue other roles within the education community.
Biden began teaching at NOVA in 2009 after Joe Biden became Vice President under Barack Obama. Even after her husband’s term ended in 2017, she continued to teach, commuting from Delaware to Northern Virginia.
Before her time at NOVA, she taught English and writing at Delaware Technical Community College and began her career in 1976 as an English teacher at a high school in Wilmington, Delaware. She also worked as a reading specialist and briefly taught English at a psychiatric hospital while earning her second master’s degree.
Jill Biden holds a doctorate in educational leadership and often said, “Teaching isn’t what I do, it’s who I am.”
