JACQUELYN MARUSHKA, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER
I’m Jackie Marushka, a creative entrepreneur with 33 years’ experience in story development, public relations, brand building, and growing successful businesses. I founded Marushka Media, a boutique PR and Branding agency, in 2016, and my team and I create and execute career-enhancing PR and marketing campaigns for clients in the entertainment and non-profit arenas.
Before I stepped out on my own to launch the first and only Hispanic/Latíne* woman-owned PR company across the country music and Americana genres, I started and led Shore Fire Media's Nashville office (known for Bruce Springsteen, Lana Del Rey and others) as GM (2013-2016). Prior to that, I led a division of Sony Music Entertainment as one of its youngest Vice Presidents and its first divisional VP of Public Relations. I handled PR for the division's distribution company, more than 40 recording artists across five record labels, a publishing company, a film company, and corporate communications.
Deadlines loomed, album release dates shifted and artists' schedules changed — constantly. What that taught me was the value of balance, and how much I enjoyed mentoring up-and-coming talent and helping others refine their stories. It also taught me the importance of giving back to the people and organizations that make my home states (Tennessee and New Mexico) healthy, beautiful and interesting.
Now, I make time to serve as a board member for The Recording Academy (Board of Governors, Nashville Chapter), The Americana Music Association (and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee), and TLACC (Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce). I mentor women and college students in TLACC-affiliated organizations ELLA and Futuro, and in May 2021, I was nominated by Nashville’s Mayor, John Cooper, for appointment to the city’s Auditorium Commission. I’m a Leadership Music alum (2004) and a member of the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, the American Association of Independent Music, and I proudly serve on the Academy Awards (Oscars) Public Relations team.
Two of my proudest moments to date include creating the Music Business Committee under the Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce, and hosting the first-ever Latíne* Panel at the Americana Music Association's Festival and Conference (Sept. 2021) with moderator Felix Contreras of NPR, Raul Malo of the Mavericks, folk artist Phoebe Hunt, and iconic recording and touring artist Tish Hinojosa. This was the first time in the 20+ year history of the organization that Spanish-language music and culture was a focal point. We explored what it means to be a Latíne* artist, through the eyes and journeys of this esteemed panel of new and established artists.
I am a founding board member of Small World Yoga and helped start the Music City Yoga Festival. As a certified Yoga and Pilates instructor, I invest in the lives of abused, neglected, and abandoned youth through yoga programs I founded at Monroe Harding and Rocketown, non-profit organizations that serve at-risk youth in Tennessee.
I grew up in the small farming community of Velarde, NM. The star-filled skies taught me to dream big. The snake-filled mountains taught me to be present and alert. The flavor and color of our green chile and apple orchard harvests fed my love of light and story. As a student at Saint Catherine's Indian School, and a graduate of Espanola Valley High School and the University of New Mexico, I learned the richness of cultural diversity, and how adversity can strengthen you — if you let it.
Helping others become the best versions of themselves is not just a calling for me, but a blessing, and I live each day rooted in gratitude and possibility.
For more about what our clients are up to, please browse our website. To contact me about speaking, writing, or serving on your next panel, please click the "contact" button, below.
*Marushka Media has chosen to use “e” in place of the Spanish-language masculine “o” and feminine “a” to recognize the fluidity of gender that exists beyond this gender binary. We are committed to inclusion and recognize the contributions of all persons.
