10th Anniversary Celebration Honorees
President Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is the 46th President of the United States. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of four children of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden and Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. In 1953, the Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware where Joe Biden and his siblings attended local Catholic schools. Biden graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse University Law School and served on the New Castle County Council.
JOE BIDEN’S FAMILY
At age 29, Joe Biden became one of the youngest Americans ever elected to the United States Senate. Just weeks after his Senate election, tragedy struck when his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed and sons Beau and Hunter were critically injured in a car accident.
Joe Biden was sworn into the U.S. Senate in his sons’ hospital room. He began commuting back and forth between Wilmington and Washington every day—first by car, then by train—to be with his boys every morning and night. In 1977, he married Jill Jacobs, a teacher. Beau and Hunter stood by their sides at the altar. In 1981, their family was made complete with the birth of their daughter Ashley.
A LEADER IN THE SENATE AND 47TH VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Joe Biden served Delaware in the U.S. Senate for 36 years. During that time, he played a leading role in addressing some of our nation’s most important domestic and international challenges, including authoring the Violence Against Women Act.
In 2008, Joe Biden was elected Vice President alongside President Barack Obama. As Vice President, he worked together with President Obama to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, oversee what was then the largest economic recovery plan in history, and strengthen American leadership on the world stage.
THE 46TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
In 2020, Joe Biden was elected President of the United States.
His election came at a pivotal moment. America stood in a winter of peril and possibilities. The country was in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
Joe Biden ran for the White House to restore the Soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of our nation—the middle class—and to unite the country. After being sworn in as the 46th President on January 20th, 2021, he took swift action to get Americans vaccinated and jumpstart an economic recovery that created 16 million new jobs—more than any other President had created in four years.
By the end of the Biden Administration, America had the strongest economy in the world. In addition to record job creation, wages were up. Inflation was down. The racial wealth gap was the lowest that it had been in 20 years.
Furthermore, the Administration invested in communities across the entire nation—urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities. Thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, roads, bridges, ports, airports, and railways were rebuilt; lead pipes were removed; and high-speed internet access was expanded to every corner of the country. Manufacturing had come back to America. And the country led the world again in the semiconductor industry. Because of President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, cutting-edge technology was manufactured in America—with American workers.
During Joe Biden’s presidency, his Administration finally beat Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, including capping insulin at $35 a month. More people in America had health insurance at the end of the Biden Administration than ever before in history.
President Biden also signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic materials and their families. His Inflation Reduction Act was the largest investment in climate action in history. And he signed into law the first major gun safety legislation in 30 years. By the end of his presidency, the violent crime rate in America was at a 50-year low.
President Biden nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. And on the world stage, President Biden strengthened our alliances and restored American leadership. He rallied the world to stand up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine; expanded NATO to be larger and stronger than ever before; and vastly increased America’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
President Biden entered office determined to build an Administration that looked like America. He served as Vice President to the nation’s first Black President. He served as President alongside the nation’s first Black woman Vice President. For his entire career, President Biden has been at the center of the great American story of expanding opportunity and making real the promise of America for everyone.
Ret. Admiral Lisa Franchetti
Lisa Franchetti is an experienced military leader, global strategist, and national security expert. She most recently served as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations, retiring in February 2025 after nearly 40 years of dedicated service to the Navy and the Nation. As the Navy’s senior military officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Franchetti advised the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on national security matters. She ensured the Navy’s over 600,000 Sailors and Civilians were ready to execute our Nation’s missions anytime, anywhere, and against any adversary.
A 1985 graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Franchetti commissioned through the NROTC program at a time when roles for women in the military were constrained by the Combat Exclusion Act and limited to non-combatant ships and aircraft in the Navy. When Congress repealed that law in 1993, she was among the first women to a serve on combatants and went on to lead at every level. With nearly 20 years of at-sea experience, Franchetti commanded USS Ross, Destroyer Squadron 21, U.S. Naval Forces in Korea, two Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups, U.S. SIXTH Fleet, and Striking and Support Forces NATO. Ashore, she served as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Force Development, the Director, Strategy, Plans and Policy on the Joint Staff (J-5), and the 42nd Vice Chief of Naval Operations.
Known for her visionary leadership, Franchetti focused the Navy on warfighting, warfighters, and building the foundation needed to support both. As CNO, she mobilized the Navy to meet the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China through her Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy. She drove efforts to grow the size of the Navy’s Fleet, integrate robotic and autonomous systems, improve shipyard maintenance performance, resolve long-standing manpower and infrastructure challenges, modernize command and control centers, and improve the quality-of-life for Sailors, Navy Civilians, and their families.
Franchetti holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. She completed Harvard Kennedy School’s National and International Security Program and was an MIT Seminar XXI Fellow. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, was awarded the Northwestern Alumni Medal in 2019, received the Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Award in 2024, was inducted into the Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement in 2024, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Northwestern University in 2025.
Secretary Martin J. Walsh
Marty Walsh has spent his life fighting for working people, as a labor leader, as a public official and as a private citizen. The son of Irish immigrants, Marty was born and raised in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.
He started out by following in his father’s footsteps as a union construction worker, rising to become president of Laborers Local 223 in Boston and eventually head of the Greater Boston Building Trades Council, representing roughly 35,000 blue-collar workers on major construction projects across the region.
In 1997, at the age of 29, Marty won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he spent 16 years fighting for workers’ rights and good jobs. A champion for civil rights, he took a courageous early stand for marriage equality, supported communities of color, immigrants, seniors, veterans and he served as a State House leader on substance abuse treatment and recovery support.
In 2013, he was elected Mayor of Boston, an office he served in for seven years. He led Boston through a period of historic success, growing the city’s economy, reducing crime, investing in schools and libraries, and ending chronic homelessness among veterans in the city. His groundbreaking policies included the nation’s first municipal Office of Recovery Services, paid parental leave for city employees, climate action and flood protection strategies, universal pre-kindergarten and free community college for low-income students.
In January 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Marty to serve as the United States’ 29th Secretary of Labor. After taking office during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marty worked to support both laid-off and frontline workers. He subsequently leveraged the President’s historic economic recovery to strengthen worker power and improve job quality. During his two years in office, Marty brought high-quality job training programs to millions of Americans, strengthened mental health support and access to treatment, and ushered in a historic surge in worker organizing.
In February 2023, Marty was appointed as the Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, returning to his roots as a labor leader where he can continue to champion the importance of workers’ rights and the shared benefits of collective bargaining for all.
Marty is someone who never forgets where he came from. A survivor of Burkitt’s Lymphoma as a child, he has fought to expand access to healthcare for all. Embracing recovery from alcoholism as a young man, he has always believed in compassion and second chances. Grateful for the role that unions played in helping his immigrant family join the middle class, he co-founded pre-apprenticeship programs that have become national models in helping people of color, women and justice-involved individuals enjoy successful construction careers as union members.
He is a graduate of Boston College and shares his life with his wife, Lorrie Higgins.