Talent
Meet Our Team
Jax Marketing & Communications is built around collaboration. We bring senior-level marketing leadership together with a trusted group of creative partners to help nonprofit and mission-driven organizations turn good ideas into real progress.
Jackie Shelton
Principal
Our team is led by Jackie Shelton, APR, a strategic communications professional with more than three decades of experience helping organizations tell meaningful stories and build real connection. Over the years, Jackie has worked across nearly every corner of marketing and communications, and eventually stopped trying to pick just one lane..
Her career has included running multiple advertising agencies, publishing regional magazines, and leading communications for organizations of all sizes. But the throughline has always been the same: helping people understand why the work matters.
In recent years, Jackie has focused her expertise on nonprofit and mission-driven organizations — groups doing important work with limited time, budgets, and capacity. She understands the realities nonprofits face, from board dynamics and grant cycles to community trust and long-term relationship building. That perspective shapes everything she does, from strategy and messaging to campaigns and day-to-day execution.
Alongside her professional work, Jackie has long been deeply involved in community advocacy and nonprofit leadership. She has served on numerous local, regional, and national boards, supported grassroots organizing efforts, and continues her activism through community-based initiatives focused on equity, civic engagement, and social impact. These experiences give her an insider’s understanding of how mission-driven organizations operate. And what they need from their marketing partners. She is now doing her community activism through Make Good Trouble Reno.
Jackie holds a journalism degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, earned her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) in 2016, and has served in leadership roles within professional communications organizations. She brings that foundation to her work every day, combining strategic rigor with a collaborative, human-centered approach.
At Jax, Jackie leads with clarity, curiosity, and respect. For the mission, the people doing the work, and the communities they serve.
Jessica Santina
Storyteller
Jessica is an award-winning freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years’ experience working in communications, media, marketing, and publishing. She specializes in covering education, the arts, and cultural topics.
She received her B.A. in English from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and her M.A. in writing from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her credits include ghostwritten books, articles in multiple local and regional publications, and professional copywriting for print and electronic media sources.
Additionally, she is a partner in Lucky Bat Books, an independent publishing house (www.luckybatbooks.com), and the managing editor of edible Reno-Tahoe magazine.
Learn more about Jessica and her work at www.JessicaSantina.com or Linkedin.com/in/jessicasantina.
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.
Kris Swanson
Video Content Creator
Kris Swanson is a video content creator with a lifetime of experience in film, television, radio and new media. Coming from a media family, Kris’s first job was transferring old filmstrips to video tape.
From there he went on to television production, then radio where he learned to write compelling copy and take audiences for a ride in the theater of the mind. Kris has worked on countless TV shows, commercials and films over the years, working with teams large and small.
Kris is both competent as a shooter and in the edit suite, and he fosters a collaborative environment on every production, pooling the energy and talents from all team members while maintaining the vision of the Writers, Directors and Producers.
In his free time Kris takes his creativity into the physical realm, building things and remodeling his home with his wife Ruta and their three kids. Kris also enjoys skiing, hiking, camping, watersports, trying new foods and traveling the world.
For more information, visit www.SwansonLane.com.
