Ashley Biden

Ashley Blazer Biden (born June 8, 1981) is an American social worker, activist, philanthropist, and fashion designer.

Ashley Blazer Biden was born on June 8, 1981, in Wilmington, Delaware to Jill Biden and Joe Biden.

She is the half-sister of Beau Biden, Hunter Biden, and Naomi Biden, her father's children from his first marriage to Neilia Hunter.

Biden is a great-great-granddaughter of Edward Francis Blewitt.

She is of English, French, and Irish descent on her father's side and English, Scottish, and Italian descent on her mother's side.

Biden was raised in the Catholic faith and was baptized at St. Joseph's on the Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware.

During her childhood, her father served as a United States Senator from Delaware and her mother worked as an educator.

Biden attended Wilmington Friends School, a private school run by the Religious Society of Friends in Wilmington.

She was on her school's lacrosse and field hockey teams.

When Biden was in elementary school, she discovered that the cosmetics company Bonne Bell tested its products on animals.

She wrote a letter to the company asking them to change their policy on animal testing.

She later got involved in dolphin conservation, inspiring her father to work with Congresswoman Barbara Boxer to write and pass the 1990 Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act.

Biden made an appearance before members of the United States Congress to lobby for the legislation.

She graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware, in 1999.

Biden studied cultural anthropology at Tulane University.

During her freshman year of college, she worked at Girls Incorporated, now Kingswood Academy, as a camp counselor.

She also interned at a summer program at Georgetown University, working with youth from Anacostia.

After college, Biden worked as a waitress at a pizza shop in Wilmington for a few months before starting her career in social work.

She moved to Kensington, Philadelphia, and started a job as a clinical support specialist at the Northwestern Human Services Children's Reach Clinic, assisting youth and their families with accessing resources and working directly with psychiatrists and therapists.

In 2008 she was listed in Delaware Today's "40 People to Watch" for her work in the department.

Later, she joined the Delaware Center for Justice, focusing on criminal justice reform and establishing programs on public education, adult victim services, gun violence, and more.

She also implemented a program called SWAGG to combat violent crimes and gang activity among youth.

She obtained a master's of social work degree from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice in 2010.

She was one of twelve graduates who received the John Hope Franklin Combating American Racism Award.

Biden is a social justice activist and social worker who has worked extensively in Delaware.

She served at the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families for 15 years, creating programs for youth in juvenile justice, foster care, and mental health.

She served as the executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice from 2014 to 2019.

Prior to her administrative role at the center, Biden worked in the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families.

In 2014, Biden criticized the death penalty, stating that it is not cost effective and wastes resources that could go towards victim services and crime prevention.

She founded the Young@Art program that provides resources and outlets for students to create artwork while they are detained in detention facilities, and then sells the art in the community.

Half of the proceeds of the art go directly to the artists, and the other half goes into funding the program to buy art supplies and to pay the wages of youth who work at the community art shows.

Through the program, Biden also teaches the students business and financial literacy skills.

Livelihood's logo, an arrow piercing through the letters "LH", was inspired by Biden's half-brother Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Biden stated that "[Beau] was my bow. His cancer brought me to my knees. I had no choice but to shoot forward, keep going, keep aiming at my own dreams."

Biden created the brand to help combat income inequality and racial inequality in the United States.

She founded the fashion company Livelihood, which partners with the online retailer Gilt Groupe to raise money for community programs focused on eliminating income inequality in the United States, launching it at New York Fashion Week in 2017.

Biden's parents are President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

In 2017, Biden launched the Livelihood Collection, an ethical fashion clothing brand, at Spring Place in TriBeCa during New York Fashion Week.

The launch event was attended by Biden's parents and celebrities including Olivia Palermo and Christian Siriano.

The brand collaborated with Gilt Groupe and Aubrey Plaza to raise $30,000 for the Delaware Community Foundation.