Dr. Jill Biden (Photo: Ece Ogulturk)
Partners for Education at Berea College will host the 2018 Rural College Access and Success Summit. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jill Biden, EdD, Board Chair of Save the Children US, will address the need to prepare students of all ages for academic and life success.
The Summit will bring together educators, legislators, non-profit leaders and many others to share ideas and strategies for ensuring that rural youth have the resources to successfully transition from high school to college and career. During the Summit, participants will explore best practices and highlight the unique opportunities to be found in rural America. The event will be held May 13-15 in Lexington, Kentucky.
A lifelong educator, Dr. Biden served as Second Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2016, but her real passion has always been teaching. Biden often says, being a teacher isn’t just what she does — it’s who she is, which is why she spent over three decades teaching in community colleges, high schools and a psychiatric hospital for adolescents.
As Second Lady, she worked to underscore the critical role of community colleges in creating the best, most educated workforce in the world. She hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges and led the Community College to Career Tour across the country to highlight industry partnerships between community colleges and employers. Today, she continues to teach at a community college in Northern Virginia and is the honorary chair of the College Promise National Advisory Board, leading the effort to make community colleges free for responsible students.
Along with her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, she leads the Biden Cancer Initiative to spur cancer research and deliver better patient outcomes and the Biden Foundation, which works to strengthen the middle class, protect women and children against violence, ensure LGBTQ equality, support military families and advocate for community colleges.