The Millsaps women’s basketball program added another strong leader to their coaching staff as Ciara Jackson was announced as assistant coach on Tuesday. She joined the staff in late July 2025.
Jackson describes herself as dedicated, organized and detail-oriented with experience as an assistant coach, manager and a student-athlete herself.
The Shannon, Miss., native most recently was an assistant coach at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa, where she spent the 2024-25 season as an assistant women’s basketball coach for the Panthers.
Jackson led the Panthers to their best season in 14 seasons, where they placed second in the conference with a 14-4 record and were the NJCAA Region runner-ups posting a 25-6 overall record.
While winning on the court, Jackson made sure her players performed the proper stretching and conditioning techniques and she ran workouts to develop the team to succeed during practices and games.
Prior to working at Ellsworth Community College, Jackson was the women’s volunteer assistant basketball coach for the junior varsity team at Rust College from 2023-24.
While with the Bearcats, she ran drills and helped student-athletes develop and improve skills and aided the team with injury prevention.
Jackson also devoted her time with the Bearcats by scheduling games, assisting with practices and game planning.
In 2022 through 2024, Jackson started her journey as an assistant basketball coach with the SIPP Select Basketball Club, where she organized events and tournaments while recruiting high school student-athletes to the program.
During the 2022-23 season Jackson was the women’s basketball manager at Ole Miss. There she helped assist with practice drills, game-day preparation and organized both the locker room and equipment room.
Jackson competed collegiately on the court at East Mississippi Community College from 2019-22. In 2020, Jackson helped the Lions to the 2020 MACJC State Championship with a 24-3 overall record.
The guard also became a MACJC North Division Champion following a perfect 12-0 conference campaign. She also excelled in her academic studies by making the Dean’s List.
Jackson obtained her bachelor's degree in Sports Recreation Administration with a minor in Education from the University of Mississippi in 2024.
In May of 2022, Jackson graduated from East Mississippi Community College with an Associate of Arts degree. She made First Team Academic Excellence with a 3.34 GPA in Scooba.
Jackson graduated from Shannon High School in 2019.
