Founded by freelance journalist and consultant Jasmine Rios, Mina by trade, Mina Communications was established in 2007 with the initial focus on providing the underserved San Diego arts community with solutions to their communications service needs. Having worked in a variety of communications business settings over the decade prior - from a corporate marketing department to two advertising agencies and two publishers - Mina Communications would serve as an independent facilitator of Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, and Grant Writing services for local artists and arts organizations with staffing and budget limitations. 

 

During the company's first year of operation, Rios also found opportunity in freelance writing with the national publication Dancer Magazine - the motivation behind expanding service offerings beyond the local San Diego arts community. Furthering her artistic range in arts news writing, Rios exercised her knowledge of cuisine, by writing for SanDiegoRestaurants.com and SanFranciscoRestaurants.com from 2009 - 2011 (now TableAgent.com), while also gaining momentum in international dance news writing in 2011 with the Vancouver, Canada based Dance International Magazine; followed by Bavaria, Germany's Dance For You Magazine in 2012. That same year, Mina Communications relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Rios is originally from, to set up business operations in Sonoma Wine Country. Mina Communications remains on the global radar to date - continuously expanding its client base while developing and reporting content for a variety of print publications and online news platforms. 

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Born and raised in San Francisco, J Mina Rios found inspiration in the arts through film, live dance, music, and theater performance, and the local culinary experience. Rios opted to explore a variety of art forms during her youth beginning with the violin, followed by drama at the Performing Arts Workshop (PAW), and later dance. By age 14, Rios auditioned to attend the San Francisco School of the Arts High School (SOTA). She began her four year tenure at SOTA in Intermediate modern, ballet, jazz, and Afro-Cuban dance forms and went on to Advanced dance during her sophomore and junior years. As a senior, she advanced to the Dance Production class. Rios also trained at the San Francisco School of Ballet with the intention of pursuing a BFA degree in dance at a university. 

 

She began attending college in 1988. But the idea of pursuing a dance degree was strongly contested at home. Her elders maintained that a BFA in dance would be risky due to job uncertainty. Encouraged to consider other college majors, Rios was conflicted. While considering her options, Rios continued to dance on the side while attending the College of San Mateo. Before long, she found guidance from an unexpected source - an English professor who observed she had a knack for writing; ultimately advising she consider journalism. To this end,  Rios transferred to the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University - considered one of the strongest departments of its kind in the state - at the time. Choosing a communications concentration prompted an in-depth exploration of course work in news writing and editing, media ethics and libel law, marketing, and public relations. Once Rios learned that career opportunities in advertising were plentiful, she solidified her objective. As an advertising major, with a minor in humanities, Rios studied copywriting, broadcast media advertising, retail advertising, and business to business advertising. In her senior year, she excelled during the SJSU senior class Advertising Campaign Competition. Serving as copywriter and a key presenter during the competition for the team Kenton Lane, the team won the 1997 SJSU Advertising Department Competition.

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While attending college, Rios also met her husband, a fellow SJSU Alumni, during which they had two children before Rios graduated from San Jose State University in 1997. From 1997 - 1998, Rios worked at Metro Newspapers in San Jose until she and her husband relocated to San Diego to raise their family. Rios worked in a variety of San Diego based communications business settings starting with the Marketing Department at Charlotte-Russe Corporate Headquarters in 1998, followed by Cordero & Davenport Advertising, Davis Marketing, Elsevier (a global publisher), and the California Ballet's PR, Marketing, and Ticketing Services departments through 2006. Beginning in January 2007, Rios established Mina Communications - becoming the sole proprietor of her own consulting business; while simultaneously launching her professional writing career.   

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In June 2022, Rios attended the Climate Reality Project (CRP) Leadership Corps Training in Las Vegas, NV - led by former Vice President Al Gore. Attending the Leadership Corps Training to become a Climate Leader was a life-changing experience, inspiring Rios to become a devout proponent of vital climate information and solutions for the San Francisco Bay Area community and beyond. Rios is a contributing writer for the Climate Reality Project - Bay Area Chapter and launched the MinaCommunity Column, a climate news source and initiative in December 2023.