Talent
Get To Know Our Team.
Jax Marketing & Communications is a full-service marketing/communications firm made up of amazingly talented professionals who are all successfully self-employed. When we come together and direct our energy toward one goal, the results speak for themselves.
Shelle Murach
Outreach & Advocacy Director
Shelle Murach is a marketing and communications professional with more than two decades of proven success in telling client stories. She specializes in developing strategic communication solutions that strengthen organizations from the inside out.
With a focus on the medical, legal, data and nonprofit industries, she works with businesses that range in size from one person startups to global corporations. Her clients’ stories have appeared in the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, and USA Today, on major national and international news programs and too many reality shows to count.
Her love of a good story can be traced back to that day when she was handed her first library card. After that she wore a groove in the sidewalk for the eight blocks between the library and her house. In her free time, she and her husband are in the kitchen debating recipes, perfecting their pasta sauce or just making a piece of toast while sipping a cup of coffee.
Alex Ybarra
Graphic Designer
Alex Ybarra is a fifth generation Renoite and loves everything the community has to offer. He started his creative practices on his high school yearbook staff as a photographer and ultimately became Editor-in-Chief. This inspired him to pursue a degree in journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. His emphasis was in strategic communication but he found that graphic design was his niche.
After graduation, he stayed on campus and was hired as the lead graphic designer for Nevada athletics. In this role, he led the branding and design aspects for 16 athletic teams and the entire front office. It was a position of a lifetime but he decided in early 2022 to pursue a full-time freelance career. He founded Absent Light Creative and has worked with a variety of local businesses and non-profits to provide them with quality marketing material.
Outside of work, he loves traveling, being outdoors, and learning astronomy. He strives to be a lifelong learner so there is always a new fascination popping up. He also enjoys spending time with his friends and family.
Mikalee Byerman
Strategist, Storyteller
Mikalee Byerman (which rhymes with “prickly fireman” — though she’s claims to be neither grumpy nor particularly adept at fire suppression) is an author, humor essayist, marketing consultant and keynote speaker. She was named “Best Creative Writer” and “Best Local Author” in the Best of Nevada awards.
Mikalee holds a master’s degree in journalism and has spent more than a decade in executive marketing roles creating client strategies, identifying unique value propositions, crafting brands and writing copy that delivered results. She is also a humor strategist (yes, that’s a thing), channeling her C-suite background to teach others how to sparkle their marketing and spark creativity at work.
The second edition of her debut book, "100 Things to Do in Reno Before You Die,” was published in fall 2023. Her writing has been featured in Ladies’ Home Journal, Southwest Spirit Magazine, Alaska Airlines Magazine and on the Huffington Post.
She spends her spare time with her gloriously weird daughter and high-maintenance puppy, usually while on FaceTime with her two adult kids who live in Oregon.
Emily Skyle-Golden
Director, Producer
A former news anchor turned filmmaker, Emily Skyle’s narrative and unscripted work has been seen on HBO, Travel Channel, Netflix, Hallmark and most recently, on Rennervations, a Disney+ series starring Jeremy Renner. As a writer and director, her films have played at top tier Oscar qualifying film festivals on four continents.
In 2018, Emily founded the Cordillera Int’l Film Festival, located in the beautiful Reno Tahoe region of Nevada, which has quickly become one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” according to MovieMaker Magazine, and is ranked in the Top 1% of more than 10,000 film festivals worldwide by FilmFreeway.
Emily likes dogs first, then cats. She can ski on snow, but not on water - although she excels at being dragged (awkwardly) underwater. She is determined to fill up every page of her passport with stamps. She enjoys wearing heels and loves to camp - rarely at the same time. She was born and raised in Alaska. She enjoys writing, but not about herself.
Jackie Shelton
Principal
Our team is led by strategic communications veteran Jackie Shelton, APR, who, after 30 years still has a hard time focusing on one particular aspect, so she has stopped trying.
She has worked in all facets of communications from running three advertising agencies (two of her own) to publishing two of the Northern Nevada region’s premier publications, RLife and Family Pulse. In addition to her magazine work, she has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul (twice!) and 365 Scary Stories, a Barnes & Noble anthology.
She discovered a new love for screenwriting in 2018, and has since written several award-winning screenplays and completed her first short film, Lost in Memories, in 2021.
While running Jax, she has also worked for other companies, including another full-service agency and a national publicly traded blue-collar staffing company. She has also helped communicate the importance of renewable energy for her family’s business, Rattler Energy, which represents the Total Flow Generator, a machine that converts waste energy into fuel-free green energy.
Jackie graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in journalism in 1987, she earned her accreditation in public relations (APR) in 2016 and she served on the board of directors for the local PRSA chapter.
She just finished her term as chair of the newly formed Northern Nevada Marches Forward, which puts on the annual Reno Women's March. She also serves on the board of the Cordillera International Film Festival.
She has served on the NCET and WIN boards, as well as the local, regional and national board of the American Advertising Federation, and numerous local/regional non-profit and professional organizations.
Clay Hall
Account Manager
As an experienced sales and marketing professional, Clay has worked with advertisers and marketers to find unique solutions to their business challenges. His insight informs clients’ choices across several mediums, including direct mail, print, branded merchandise and digital advertising. .
Clay also serves as the VP of Sales for Reno Type, a direct mail, print and promo company. Before joining Reno Type, he worked in senior management positions for two nationally ranked branded merchandise companies, AIA Corporation and Staples Promotional Products. .
Recently, Clay and his fabulous partner, Jackie Shelton, delved into filmmaking, making their first short film, Lost in Memories, written and directed by Jackie. They have collaborated on several other scripts and look forward to making more films soon. Clay also wrote a musical based on the music of Journey.
