For almost as long as there have been PR agencies, there have been women in PR–but not many like our Co-CEOs, Denise Scatena and Arika Daniels.
Hot off their promotions late last year, both Denise and Arika have continued to prove why their names have become synonymous with excellent women in PR. Their leadership has helped their agency garner several top accolades throughout the last 15 years, including two Best in Show awards at the 2024 Health Care Communicators of Southern California Awards Show and a coveted Bronze Anvil at the 2024 national PRSA Anvil Awards. Daniels was even recently named CEO of the Year in the Small Business Category by the San Diego Business Journal. So let’s get to know these two women in PR, shall we?
Denise Scatena
Denise Scatena is a third-generation San Diegan with deep roots in the San Diego community. Her impact, though, reaches farther north to the borders of Orange County. Not only is Denise a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s Orange County chapter, but she even called Orange County home while attending Chapman University.
As a student, Denise earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with a focus on public relations. Outside the classroom, Denise was on the women’s swim team and was the philanthropy chair of Phi Sigma Sigma Sorority. She quickly made her way back home after earning her undergraduate degree and immediately got to work as a marketing coordinator for the San Diego Performing Arts League, learning about all facets of promotion to advance the mission of the organization – before the PESO Model was actually a thing!
Scatena then made the move to Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) as a community relations specialist. There, she managed major community outreach campaigns like the 50 Best Moms essay contest, canned food drive competitions, and cooperative campaigns with cable networks which brought unique opportunities and resources to our local community, like the C-SPAN Bus and VH1’s Save the Music program. As she thrived in this role, she simultaneously enrolled in San Diego State University’s Master of Arts in Communications program. Shortly after earning her masters, while she was also working as the community development manager for investigative journalism outlet Voice of San Diego, Denise launched her own PR consultancy, Lemonade Public Relations. And the trajectory of her whole career changed.
While managing her own PR consultancy, Denise uncovered her passion for entrepreneurship. She knew, from then on out, that she had to run her own PR firm. It made too much sense. Denise’s family is full of entrepreneurs who had successful small businesses and side hustles in San Diego. As her passion for entrepreneurship grew, Denise served on the board for PRSA of San Diego and Imperial Counties. At PRSA, she met her future business partner, Arika Daniels. Their budding friendship eventually led to the birth of Scatena Daniels Communications in 2009.
Over the fifteen years since Denise has established herself as a leading voice for women in PR. She has helped build Scatena Daniels into one of the most widely respected and beloved PR agencies in Southern California. Denise dedicates her time to developing new business relationships for the agency and curating a healthy client pipeline. She is heavily involved in the overall PR and integrated communications strategy for our client campaigns.
Outside of Scatena Daniels, Denise has been a proud member of San Diego Rotary since 2020, becoming more heavily involved in the storied organization over the years. She currently serves on the San Diego Rotary Club’s Program Allocation Committee and is a member of the newly formed Peace/IDEA committee, recently serving as vice chair. Denise also spearheaded the PR campaign for the Rotary 33’s Mr. San Diego 2023 award, given to the late San Diego Padres owner Pete Seidler. The campaign earned primetime coverage from all major outlets in town and gained attention from national outlets like Sports Illustrated.
She is involved in local organizations that further the professions of philanthropy, public relations, and journalism. She is also the founder of the Clairemont Pool Booster Club, where she led a successful campaign to convince the City of San Diego to restore funding for youth swimming and water polo programs in FY 2025 and also advocated for the Clairemont Pool to receive their fair share of $2M in grant funding from the state of California, to fund much-needed infrastructure repairs of the crumbling concrete deck and the failing floor of the competition-sized municipal pool.
Arika Daniels
It’s ironically serendipitous that Arika Daniels eventually linked up with Denise Scatena. Their journeys often left them as passing ships in the night. A few years after Denise left San Diego, Arika left La Conner, Wash., to attend San Diego State University. Arika wasn’t immediately convinced she’d have a career in public relations, though. She actually graduated with a Bachelor’s of Public Administration.
Just as Denise was making her way back to San Diego, Arika set her sights on Orange County. She enrolled at Chapman University, where Denise graduated with her bachelor’s degree in public relations. Missing her future business partner by a few years, Arika earned an MBA with a focus on marketing communications.
It was during her graduate studies that Arika’s marketing career truly began. As a graduate student, Arika worked as a marketing assistant for the George L. Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University and as an account executive at Luxury Brand Group, a boutique brand communications agency focused on fine jewelry and luxury products. Arika got a taste for the finer things at Luxury Brand Group, but it wasn’t a long-term fit.
Arika returned to San Diego as a public relations specialist for Rhino Linings. It was quite the departure from Luxury Brand Group. Arika was now managing media opportunities and campaigns in the chemical manufacturing industry. Her short but eclectic career had thus far shown her just how niche a PR career gets. She had also built a portfolio chock-full of diverse clients and campaigns. This caught the attention of the Phoenix-based advertising agency Cramer-Kasselt. At Cramer-Kasselt she learned from some of the top women in PR on how to manage accounts and produce results.
Once Arika realized the desert heat was not for her, she found her way back to San Diego. She then started her own consultancy, joined the PRSA San Diego and Imperial County board, and began building a relationship with Denise. Arika’s outgoing, endlessly talkative nature had caught Denise’s attention. Though Denise had only just started her own PR consultancy, she recognized the potential for a game-changing partnership with Arika. Luckily, Arika saw Denise as the yin to her yang, and Scatena Daniels was born.
Now the Co-CEO of Scatena Daniels, Arika puts her effervescent personality to use in nearly every aspect of the business. She is a key contact for nearly every client at the agency, is regularly involved in the creation and execution of strategic communications plans, and handles all of the agency’s human resource and operations needs. Her efforts gained her recognition at the 2024 San Diego Business Journal CEO of the Year Awards, where she took home the CEO of the Year award in the small business category.
Aside from her role at Scatena Daniels, Arika serves on the marketing committee of the North County Philanthropy Council and is the director of finance for the Health Care Communicators of Southern California. She is heavily involved in her daughters’ budding volleyball career. She even does pro-bono PR for the Wave Volleyball Club on a case-by-case basis. Arika just recently coordinated interviews and live segments to celebrate the club’s success at nationals.
Interested in working with two of the top women in PR? Drop us a line!