Our News

As we continue our year-long celebration of ten years in business, we hosted a party in Washington, D.C. this week to bring together clients, colleagues and friends to mark our anniversary. In addition to celebrating RENEW PR and the work we've done over the past decade, we also honored a former client, Family Equality, to support their work advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ families. I'm proud to say we have raised more than $12,000 for Family Equality as part of our ann

“….you have to give people hope.” – Harvey Milk   Our tenth anniversary year has already been an eventful one and we’re busier than ever. The past ten years have brought us to a place I never could have imagined when I launched RENEW PR  on January 23, 2015. We have helped nearly 50 clients on a variety of campaigns, programs and projects focused on energy, environment and equity. We work with a team of seven independent PR professionals from across the country. We have buil

Eleven years ago, a colleague gave me this advice when I asked him about building RENEW PR : “You aren't a true business until you've been hired by someone who doesn't know you.”    That was sound counsel – you might even say “common sense” – and I have thought about it a lot as we have grown the firm over the past ten years from me to more than half a dozen partner agencies and a Team of seven independent PR professionals (not to mention our amazing COO, my wonderful husband

When I launched RENEW PR  ten years ago , my plan was to create an opportunity to do good work with good people. I thought my focus on energy and environmental policy and related communications challenges would afford me solid opportunities to do that. And I was right.   What I didn’t foresee, at least at first, was the opportunity to expand that remit to include equity and the many ways in which the energy and environment conversation includes those considerations. For examp

Although I was confident and excited when I launched RENEW PR  nine years today , I didn’t envision what the future held. Did I think we’d work with nearly 50 clients  and collaborate with a team of eight freelancers and more than 10 agency partners  in our first nine years? Did I foresee that we’d win awards  and that I would be inducted into the PRSA National Capital Chapter Hall of Fame ? In a word, no. What I did know was that RENEW PR  was a very good idea whose time had

In January 2022, we celebrated our seventh anniversary in business by announcing the launch of the RENEW PR LGBTQIA Endowed Scholarship at the Texas Tech Alumni Association. The annual scholarship provides funding for an LGBTQIA student in the college of Arts and Sciences or any LGBTQIA student in a college at Texas Tech who plans to study abroad. And last month, we celebrated the first recipient of this scholarship (from last year): Doan Tran . The idea behind this schol

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure and privilege of being interviewed by renowned Professional Certified Coach Ken Jacobs for his monthly column in PRSA's Strategies and Tactics newspaper on my "commitment to DEI." Strategies & Tactics editor John Elsasser kindly granted me permission to reprint the Q&A in its entirety from the June-July 2023 issue of the newspaper. My thanks to John for his permission and to Ken for this terrific conversation. Ben Finzel's Commitment t

Last year, we celebrated our seventh anniversary in business by announcing the debut of the RENEW PR LGBTQIA Endowed Scholarship at the Texas Tech Alumni Association for LGBTQIA students at Texas Tech University. We decided to honor our “seven years of good luck” by giving back to help others. The annual scholarship provides funding for an LGBTQIA student in the college of Arts and Sciences or any LGBTQIA student in a college at Texas Tech who plans to study abroad. As we

This weekend, I had the pleasure and privilege of delivering the 2023 Texas Tech University Lavender Graduation Speech . I'm an alumnus of Texas Tech University (B.A. History, 1989) and this was my first trip back to Texas Tech since graduating nearly 34 years ago! As I've written here in the past , my Texas Tech education, life in Texas and study abroad experience helped make me who I am today. So I was particularly excited to have an opportunity to share that story with thi

As the holder of a degree in history, I understand the importance of remembering, assessing and honoring the past while ensuring that we learn lessons from it as well. That’s exactly what the Museum of Public Relations does. So, it only makes sense that I would feature the Museum’s Founder, President and CEO in this series. It’s a pleasure to welcome Shelley Spector to the Common Sense Colloquy . And what better time to feature Shelley Spector than during Women’s History Mon

Every January brings us more than just a celebration of a new calendar year: at RENEW PR , it’s also the start of another year in business. We opened for business on January 23, 2015 , so today is the eighth anniversary of our launch. It’s been an incredible eight years: we’ve worked with more than 40 clients , helped secure several important changes in federal law, promoted new cleantech policies and even won an award in the process. Over these eight years, we’ve sharpened

We don’t talk as much about our work on equity in this series as we should so we’re addressing that omission. One way is to highlight the work of our colleagues and business partners in The Change Agencies , the national network of multicultural and LGBTQ owned and operated public relations agencies we helped launch in June of 2019. This month, we’re shining a spotlight on the agency leaders we have the pleasure and privilege of collaborating with to run The Change Agencies:

We've now completed a whirlwind Pride Month 2022. It was a month filled with highs and lows, like any month in the past few years, frankly. What was different this year was the sense that, as the Museum of Public Relations said in their annual Pride event title this year, LGBTQ rights are on the line . That sense was reinforced on June 24th, when the Supreme Court announced their ruling in the Dobbs case, declaring that women no longer had control over their own reproductive

Celebrating, honoring and acknowledging Pride Month is more important this year than ever (and it should be celebrated all year, not just during one month). The expected Supreme Court ruling that will undermine the right to bodily autonomy and privacy is just the latest assault on communities like ours. Legislators in statehouses and city halls across the country are ramping up their attacks on the LGBTQ community, and they are being particularly virulent towards transgender

The NCAA Tournament rankings aren’t the only national rankings making news this month (although we are certainly excited to see Texas Tech ranked #3 in the Western Region of the NCAA Tournament!). Last week, we had the distinct pleasure – and surprise – of learning that we’ve been ranked as the #2 Public Affairs firm in the country on the Clutch 2022 B2B Leaders chart . As a DC-based public affairs firm working with clients across the country, we think any ranking is a good

Today, we are celebrating our seventh anniversary in business. On this day in 2015, I hit “publish” on our website and “send” on an email announcing the debut of RENEW PR , a new public relations firm in Washington, D.C. focused on “restoring common sense to communications.” So what have the last seven years been like for us? The late, great jazz musician Joe Sample inspired this post with this composition “ Seven Years of Good Luck ” from his 1989 album Spellbound . We’ve wo

One of the reasons I founded RENEW PR was my interest in working with good people on good things. Nowhere is that more in evidence than with the RENEW PR Team , the group of experienced, independent communications professionals I partner with to help clients across the country and across the world. It’s a fantastic collection of smart, funny, creative and wildly talented people and I’m thankful every day for the opportunity to work with them. So, it’s exciting to expand our

Climate change doesn’t recognize borders. While most of our work centers on the U.S., we understand the importance of hemispheric and global communications on issues like energy and environment. So, I was thrilled when a former colleague contacted me this summer to ask for RENEW PR ’s help with the release of a report on the future of clean energy in Mexico. I jumped at the chance and had the opportunity to bring new RENEW PR Team Member Jessica Lass into the conversation fr

What does one say about being inducted into a Hall of Fame in recognition of their work? Thank you, of course, but for what and to whom? This summer, my friend Shonali Burke told me she intended to nominate me for the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter Hall of Fame . This is an honor reserved for public relations professionals who have been working in DC for at least 10 years and in our industry for at least 30 years. After having the conversation ab

One of the reasons I founded RENEW PR was my interest in working with good people on good things. Nowhere is that truer than with the RENEW PR Team , the group of experienced, independent communications professionals I partner with to help clients across the country and across the world. It’s a fantastic collection of smart, funny, creative and wildly talented people and I’m thankful every day for the opportunity to work with them. So, it’s very exciting to be adding to our