Vice President Joe Biden often joked on the campaign trail about his wife's lofty educational achievements. She had two master's degrees and had already worked for nearly a quarter-century as a college community instructor. But he had a better idea.
"Why don't you go out and get a doctorate and make us some real money?" he said he told her. (That was always good for a laugh, especially in university towns.)
In 2007, at 55, Jill Biden did earn a doctorate -- in education, from the University of Delaware. Since then, in campaign news releases and now in White House announcements, she is "Dr. Jill Biden." This strikes some people as perfectly appropriate and others as slightly pompous, a quality often ascribed to her voluble husband.
Last week, the White House announced that Jill Biden had returned to the classroom -- thought by some who study the presidency and vice presidency to be a historical first. She is teaching two courses at Northern Virginia Community College, the second-largest community college in the U.S. She began her new job before last month's inauguration; the announcement was delayed out of respect for that event.
"She's just really excited to be back in the classroom," said Courtney O'Donnell, her spokeswoman. "Teaching is such a huge passion and a joy for her."
Some second ladies, as vice presidents' wives are called, have been accomplished professionals. Marilyn Quayle is a lawyer, but she did not practice while her husband, Dan, was in office. Lynne Cheney, Jill Biden's immediate predecessor, is a novelist who earned a doctorate in English with a dissertation titled "Matthew Arnold's Possible Perfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold's Poetry." She goes by Mrs. Cheney.
But Biden is thought to be the first second lady to hold a paying job while her husband is in office.
"I think she is unique," said Joel Goldstein, a professor at St. Louis University School of Law and an expert on the vice presidency. Other second ladies -- Cheney, Quayle, Tipper Gore and Joan Mondale -- wrote, lectured or did important volunteer work.
"But I think Dr. Biden is the first . . . to basically continue in the regular workforce," said Goldstein, who has a DPhil (the English term for doctor of philosophy) from Oxford and a JD (juris doctor) from Harvard. He seemed mildly amused upon hearing that Biden liked to be called "Dr."
