As Americans and the world celebrate our newest elected president, we are also celebrating another positive outcome: a change in First Lady.

I remember first learning of Dr. Jill Biden when I was a student at Teachers College, Columbia University. The first graduate school of education, Teachers College is home to the Community College Research Center, a place Dr. Biden is proud of.

Dr. Biden is a community college English instructor, a lover of education, and a leader in improving affordability and access to higher education. She has taught English in the public schools of Delaware and English Composition and Remedial English at the Community College level.

She believes in paying our educators fair salaries, providing them with resources to teach, and focusing heavily on the mental health of our school children.

She, as I do, sees abuse to be one of the greatest concerns facing our educational system and country.

She believes that a child’s future should not be determined by zip code, their parents’ income, race, or disability.

She understands the impact childhood has on an individual’s life and believes we need to be focusing on the development of our children from birth.

She doesn’t just believe in investing in our children’s academics, but also in their mental health.

She and her husband will push to double the number of school psychologists, counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals working in our schools.

She will fight for the child who doesn’t have glasses because they don’t have access to healthcare.

She values affordable education for all and believes it is time we start talking about ways to help these children flourish.

We didn’t just vote in a new president today.

We also voted in our first female Vice President, and a First Lady who will force us to look closely at the lives of our children, and the abuse and inequities that continue to exist in our society.

For more on our next First Lady, Jill Biden:

 

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