Cija Jefferson

Senior Academic Advisor/Success Coach, WSE

Cija, pronounced Key-a, is a higher education professional and writer. She has been an academic advisor for over 15 years, first for distance-learning masters and doctoral students in health sciences, and then for undergraduate students at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Her personal advising philosophy and practice is grounded in accessibility, inclusion, and active collaboration. She has a diverse professional history that includes helping families subsidize childcare, substitute teaching for middle school students, and being a library associate at public libraries, and at JHU’s George Peabody Library—a special collections library focusing on primary resources from the 19th century.

She earned her B.A. at Sarah Lawrence College where she was a limited-income student. More than a decade after graduating from college she went back to school attending the University of Baltimore where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts. Her thesis project was her book Sonic Memories/and other essays, a collection of personal essays. She not only wrote the book, she also designed its layout and created the cover art. Her writing has been featured in multiple publications including Split Lip Magazine, palatePALETTE, and Sisters from AARP. She is a 2023 Baldwin for the Arts fellow.