About ARG
A life-long resident of San Antonio, Adriana Rocha Garcia, Ph.D. was raised in and continues to call Southwest San Antonio home. Dr. Garcia has a passion for working with organizations that help San Antonio’s most underrepresented demographics. Raised in a Spanish-speaking household to parents with a first- and second-grade Mexican education, she became the first in her family with a college degree.
Dr. Garcia received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, to stay in town to care for her parents. Upon graduation from Incarnate Word, she was offered a job in the university’s Office of Public Relations and completed her Master’s degree from the same university one year later. In 2004, she was in a cohort of 12 students accepted into the University of Texas at Austin's Doctoral Advertising program, where ten years and many miles later, she became one of the first Hispanics to earn a Ph.D. in Advertising from UT’s prestigious Moody College of Communication.
Throughout her career, Dr. Garcia has held various administrative and consulting communications and marketing positions throughout her life, in organizations like SAMMinistries Furniture for A Cause, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the City of San Antonio, Southwest ISD, and Project QUEST. Today, Dr. Garcia is molding tomorrow’s leaders as an Assistant Marketing Professor at Our Lady of the Lake University, where she teaches marketing in the School of Business and Leadership.
Dr. Garcia served as Chair of the Alamo Area Council of Government’s Committee of Six, an executive committee of the Workforce Services Alamo Board in 2020. She serves on the following City Council committees: Governance; Intergovernmental Relations; Economic and Workforce Development, including the small business subcommittee; and serves as one of two Council Liaisons for the SA Ready to Work Program. Before serving as District 4 representative to City Council, Dr. Garcia served as the Chair of the City of San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board for nearly three years, where she was responsible for leading a team of ten representatives appointed to represent their districts in the recently passed changes to the Ethics and Municipal Finance Code that further enhance the public’s trust in local government.
In 2018, Dr. Garcia joined the board of Communities in Schools – San Antonio and was also named to the San Antonio Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She was accepted into Leadership San Antonio 300, where she was a member of the Best Day Ever, the Civic Engagement Day team. In 2020, she received the Women of Excellence Award from the National Foundation of Women Legislators.
Dr. Garcia is a single mom to her son Steve, who is a student at Our Lady of the Lake University. Dr. Garcia visits her octogenarian parents daily in the home where she grew up in Southwest San Antonio, even if it is just to get a good night’s blessing from them before heading home.
Garcia comes across as thoughtful on the issues and a person who could bridge political divides on council.
- San Antonio Express News, Editorial April 9, 2019
2020 National League of Cities Human Development Committee
Council Liaison for the SA Ready to Work Program
SA City Council committees:
Governance; Intergovernmental Relations; Economic and Workforce Development, including the small business subcommittee; Municipal Court Advisory Subcommittee; SA Public Facilities Corporation; and the San Antonio Housing Trust
2020 National League of Cities Women in Municipal Government Committee
Texas Exes
Chair
Ethics Review Board City of San Antonio
Archbishop’s Appeal Steering Committee
Archdiocese of San Antonio
Board Member
Past President
Kitchen Campus, (Johnny Hernandez
Culinary Arts Foundation)
Urban Management
Assistants of South Texas
2020 Chair
2019-Present
2020 Chair of the Alamo Area Council
of Government’s Committee of Six, an executive committee of the Workforce Solutions Alamo Board
Alamo Area Council of Governments Board Member
Business Experience
Vice President, Communications & Marketing
San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Director of Public Relations
Southwest ISD
Special Projects Coordinator
Project Quest, Inc.
Assistant Marketing Professor
Our Lady of the Lake University
Special Projects Manager and Executive Recruiter
City of San Antonio
Chief News and Information Officer
University of the Incarnate Word
2020 National League of Cities Human Development Committee
Council Liaison for the SA Ready to Work Program
SA City Council committees:
Governance; Intergovernmental Relations; Economic and Workforce Development, including the small business subcommittee; Municipal Court Advisory Subcommittee; SA Public Facilities Corporation; and the San Antonio Housing Trust
2020 National League of Cities Women in Municipal Government Committee
Texas Exes
Chair
Ethics Review Board City of San Antonio
Board Member
Communities in Schools
Archbishop’s Appeal Steering Committee
Archdiocese of San Antonio
Board Member
Past President
Kitchen Campus, (Johnny Hernandez
Culinary Arts Foundation)
Urban Management
Assistants of South Texas
2020 Chair
2019-Present
2020 Chair of the Alamo Area Council
of Government’s Committee of Six, an executive committee of the Workforce Solutions Alamo Board
Alamo Area Council of Governments Board Member
Civic and Volunteer Experience
Co-Chair
SWISD 2018 Bond
Past President and
Chapter Advisory Board Member
Texas Exes
Communications Chair
Hispanic Women’s Network
- SA Chapter
Honors and Awards
2020 Women of Excellence Award from the National Foundation of Women Legislators
Community Service Award
Public Relations Society of America San Antonio Chapter
San Antonio Business Journal 40 under 40
Leadership San Antonio Class 43 Alumni
Neighborhood Leadership Academy Class of 2019
2019 Mentor, SA Business Journal
Bizwomen Mentors