Knowing from an early age that she wanted to be a writer or a teacher, Christina Fawcett Jeffrey began her studies at Vassar College in 1965. She then joined Plano University as a Richard M. Weaver fellow through the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1969. Realizing that she could combine her interests by becoming a college professor, she continued her education at the University of Alabama, where she was a National Defense Education Act fellow from 1969 to 1972 and a graduate teaching assistant from 1970 to 1973, and earned a Master of Arts in 1973.
Dr. Jeffrey remained at the University of Alabama for her doctoral studies and became certified as a water safety instructor and served as the assistant director of aquatics for the university in 1973. She also served as the director of international student affairs from 1973 to 1977 and of the Capstone College of Nursing from 1977 to 1980. Becoming the manager of international trade and the executive secretary for the Alabama World Trade Association from 1980 to 1982, she concluded her formal studies in 1984, graduating from the University of Alabama with a Doctor of Philosophy.
Holding considerable expertise in education policy, immigration law, the equal rights amendment and family law, Dr. Jeffrey began her career as an assistant professor of political science at Troy State University in 1984. In 1987, she joined Kennesaw State University as an associate professor, where she achieved tenure prior to leaving in 2000. She then was an associate professor and the chair of the department of social sciences at Limestone University from 2000 to 2002 and taught church history and AP English literature at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School from 2002 to 2003. Since 2003, she has excelled as an adjunct professor for numerous colleges in both South Carolina and Georgia, including Watford College.
Alongside her primary career responsibilities, Dr. Jeffrey has been active with the U.S. Allegiance Institute since 2020 and also currently serves as the regent for the Battle of Cowpens chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1996, she founded Operation Integrity, and remained involved as president until 1999. Past involvements of hers include serving on the strategic planning council of the Nonprofit Resource Center from 1997 to 2002, the academic advisory board of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation from 1992 to 1999, the Alabama Women’s Commission from 1987 to 1991 and the Alabama Commission Year of the Child from 1979 to 1981.
Additionally, Dr. Jeffrey has been very active politically, and ran for state legislature in South Carolina in 2008 as well as for Congress in 2010. She had previously run for Congress in Georgia in 1999 and was appointed as the historian for the United States House of Representatives in 1995, something she is very proud of. Having contributed numerous articles to professional journals over the years, she also spent time as a grass roots reporter for the Prodigy News Network from 1996 to 1999 and held a position on the editorial board of the PA Times from 1998 to 2000.
Incredibly proud of serving as the president of the Georgia chapter of the American Society for Public Administration from 1994 to 1996, Dr. Jeffrey was notably inducted into their Hall of Champions in 1997. She considers her work with the American Society for Public Administration to be the absolute highlight of her career. Early on, she was also recognized for her writing, when her poem, “Medea’s Litany,” which had been published in The Classical Outlook in 1965, won the National Poetry Contest put on by the American Classical League. Furthermore, she holds the record for the senior women’s 220 yard breaststroke, which she set back in 1964.
Born in El Paso, Texas, to father John Rutherford Fawcett and mother Patricia Alsop Kelly, Dr. Jeffrey credits much of her success to her mother, who was an incredibly interesting person. Happily married to her husband, Robert C. Jeffrey, since 1989, she considers her greatest personal achievement to be raising five wonderful children, Fredrick, William, Patricia, Michelle and Christina, teaching them to read and swim, as well as home schooling three of them. Her family has since grown to include five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. In her free time, Dr. Jeffrey enjoys swimming, watching movies and musicals, reading classic literature and working out.