Jax founded and managed a school for homeless children in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the early 1990s. In 1996, Jax received a Bush Foundation grant to conduct a study concerning educational policy pertaining to urban high school students.[6] For the past 25 years Jax has taught and held administrative positions at various higher education institutions, including Ashworth College,[7]Capella University,[8] and Walden University,[9] as well as Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.[10] In 2015 she accepted the position of chief academic officer at Digital Media Arts College.[11] In 2021 Jax became the CEO of International Accreditation Association.[12]
From 1999 to 2003 she served the state of Minnesota as Commissioner of Education (Education Chief) as a member of Governor Jesse Ventura's appointed cabinet.[13] During her tenure, the budget of the department she led (the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning, which was the state's state education agency) was cut by $8.5 million (more than 10 percent). As a result, according to Education Week, Jax "cut one-quarter of the department's staff, to 183 positions, and restricted agency spending on travel, hiring, and contracting."[14]
Jax has authored three non-fiction books: The Seven Stages of an Enlightened Teacher; Who's Building the Ark: How to Manage Through Hell and High Water; and Rolling in Their Graves: Trump Versus Great Minds (the latter under the pseudonym C.J. Castle). [15]