Former Second Lady Jill Biden will deliver the keynote address at Hopelink’s Reaching Out Benefit Luncheon Oct. 16 at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. 6th St. The luncheon will take place from noon to 1:15 p.m.

The Reaching Out luncheon – now in its 22nd year – is the Redmond-based social services agency’s largest annual fundraising event. Last year’s luncheon raised more than $1 million to provide food, shelter, family development, transportation and job-readiness skills for homeless and low-income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities in north and east King County.

As Second Lady, Dr. Biden helped bring attention to the sacrifices made by military families, to highlight the importance of community colleges to America’s future, and to raise awareness around areas of particular importance to women, including breast cancer prevention, while continuing to teach as a full-time English professor at a community college in northern Virginia. She was the first in the role of Second Lady to continue her career while her husband was in office.

A lifelong educator, Dr. Biden earned her Doctorate in Education from the University of Delaware in 2007. That same year, she helped found Book Buddies, which provides books for low-income children. Dr. Biden also has two master’s degrees — both of which she earned while working in a psychiatric hospital and raising a family.

Through the Biden Breast Health Initiative that Dr. Biden created in 1993, the Women’s Mentoring Project she started at Northern Virginia Community College to help women over 30 pursue higher education, and the February 2017 launch of the Biden Foundation with her husband Joe, the former Second Lady continues her commitment to philanthropy and public service.

There is no charge to attend the luncheon, but during the program guests will be asked to make a donation in support of Hopelink’s services.

For more information, visit Hopelink.org/luncheon.