Idaho Practitioners Launch Red Sky Public Relations

(BOISE, ID) Idaho public relations professionals Stephanie Worrell, Jessica Flynn and Alicia Ritter have teamed up to launch Red Sky, a full service public relations agency located in Boise.

Worrell will merge her existing business, Worrell Communications. Ritter leaves Boise State University, where she served as Director of Fundraising Initiatives. Flynn leaves her position as the first Communications Manager of Tamarack Resort, and will continue to work with Tamarack as a client.

Other clients include SuperValu/Albertsons, the Idaho Community Foundation, College of Western Idaho, Idaho State Historical Society, Advantage Sales & Marketing, the Idaho State Treasurers Office, Upromise Investments Inc., Meridian Development Corporation, and Harris Ranch.

“There is a significant need for strategic communications counsel for individuals, businesses, and agencies involved in promoting and raising the profile of Idaho and those who live, work and play in this great state,” Flynn said. “It takes a marketing mix, with a significant role played by public relations, to achieve those goals.”

“Red Sky offers a new option for strategic public relations, bringing decades of experience to the table.” Flynn said. “We look forward to supporting the communication goals of the people and organizations that make the Treasure Valley such an attractive region.”

Worrell is a journalism graduate of Iowa State University. Her experience includes public affairs work for the Idaho Consumer Information Council, serving as Assistant Information Director for the Big Sky Athletic Conference, and as senior director for the Treasure Valley YMCA — responsible for public relations, wellness and health promotions. She also served as vice president of a Boise-based public relations agency. Worrell and Flynn are both recipients of the Idaho Business Review’s “Accomplished Under 40” award.

Ritter, the firm’s President, is a former Managing Director of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, and was an owner in a California-based, $15 million annual revenue agency that was acquired by Ogilvy. After moving to Boise in 2003 she worked with clients that included the J.A. & Kathryn Albertson Foundation, the United Way of Treasure Valley, and the Idaho Nonprofit Development Center. She holds a bachelors degree in communication from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s degree in advertising from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Flynn is a broadcast journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and worked as an Emmy-winning news producer with WTAE, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; KEYE, Austin, Texas; and as executive producer at KIVI, Boise. Prior to her stint at Tamarack Resort she spent two years with a public relations agency in Boise.

Catie Wardwell will join the firm as an account executive, leaving her public relations position at St. Luke’s Boise & Meridian Medical Center. She is a communications graduate of the University of Idaho, specializing in media relations and event planning. She interned with St. Luke’s and Senator Larry Craig’s office in Washington D.C.

Robert Deen will also participate in the firm as an investor and advisor. He founded Deen+Black Public Relations, California’s largest independent public relations agency when it was acquired in 2001 by Britain’s WPP Group, the world’s largest communications conglomerate. He served as chairman of the Edelman Public Relations Worldwide affiliate network, and was the first chairman of the Phoenix Network, a national association of independent public relations agencies. A former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, he holds a journalism degree from Oregon State University and a master’s degree in communications from California State University.