Areas of expertise
Food and beverage media relations, digital marketing, email database growth, social media strategy, content creation, event ideation, and brand partnerships.
Christina Gilmour is Vice President of JS2 PR, where she is responsible for strategic communications across all press and media platforms, consulting with clients on brand positioning and growth opportunities, and supporting the professional development of the JS2 PR team.
Christina enjoys working with brands of all sizes. From an independent chef-driven restaurant to a growing brand or product, she’s committed to helping clients achieve their goals, coming up with a road map from point A to point B, and celebrating that success. Christina loves to cook and entertain, and recently participated as a judge for the IACP 2020 cookbook awards. A mother of two, Christina also volunteers with Baby2Baby and organizations that fight food insecurity.
Highlights
Launched Golden Road Brewing which made the first canned craft beer in LA County (helmed by the youngest female brewery owner at the time)
Launched Gracias Madre, which redefined the vegan dining experience in Los Angeles
Worked with Dog Haus to prepare a highly targeted media campaign as they began their franchising initiative
Launched top beachside dining destinations M.B. Post and Fishing With Dynamite. Chef David LeFevre was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef (West) for two years, and M.B. Post was a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant
Experience
Having represented myriad brands and industries, Christina sought out JS2 PR to pursue a career in food and beverage publicity. At JS2 PR, Christina represented Golden Road Brewing, Soho House, and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf; restaurants of all types like Cecconi’s, Farmshop and Tender Greens; and events like dineLA Restaurant Week and The Los Angeles Times’ The Taste.
After four action-packed years at JS2 PR Christina joined the Manhattan Beach-based Simms Restaurants in-house as Director of Communications. There, she managed all aspects of publicity and marketing for the growing restaurant group which included M.B. Post, Fishing with Dynamite, The Arthur J, Tin Roof Bistro, and six locations of Simmzy’s restaurants. In her five years with the company, Christina created a number of sales-driving marketing initiatives, implemented a social media and digital marketing program, and drove media recognition-earning placements in top dining and destination guides.
Christina re-joined the team at JS2 PR in 2021 where she brings both agency and in-house experience together to create multi-dimensional media campaigns.
Education
Christina earned her B.A. in Business from Loyola Marymount University. As the daughter of immigrants and business owners, a business degree was important to her. After college, Christina stumbled upon PR by accident and worked on a crazy array of clients (including the actual circus!). She realized she loved working with food and beverage media, and has been doing so exclusively since 2010.
3 Questions With Christina
What’s the best thing you cook?
I make a nice traditional tortilla espanola, and my baby back ribs make regular appearances at barbecues. I also have a broad repertoire of dishes in which to hide veggies for my kids.When was a memorable time you made lemonade out of lemons?
When I was furloughed from my last position due to Covid, I volunteered to lead a fundraising campaign to keep restaurant kitchens open and feed hospital workers. We raised more than $100k in six weeks. Around the same time, I helped a furloughed executive pastry chef launch an online business shipping cookies nationwide. Her story was picked up by the LA Times, Good Morning America and her local community papers, giving her the resources to fully invest in her business.Why do you love working in food and beverage PR?
I love to connect with people over a great meal, and learn about the people who made the dishes, grew the produce, and designed the space. I equally love the free cooking lessons that come with being around incredible chefs.