Telia Butler, the downtown development director for the City of Bowling Green and a former Talisman staffer, has been selected as the 2025-26 recipient of the Talisman Award for Outstanding Contributions in Communications.
She will be presented with the award at the 75th Student Publications Homecoming Breakfast, 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, on the lawn at the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center.
Butler, who graduated in 2012 with degrees in journalism and history, serves as a government services liaison for downtown businesses and developers and works to find ways to connect downtown with the larger Bowling Green community through events. She was instrumental in establishing Fountain Row as the city’s entertainment destination center in 2022 and has raised more than $100,000 through A Better BGKY Inc., a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to make Bowling Green a better place through community events, scholarships and programs. She is also in the midst of launching the Downtown BGKY Ambassadors Academy as a pilot program. She also leads the Duncan Hines Days steering committee.
Butler also has worked for WNKY-TV, producing more than 450 segments, and has been the voice of the station’s Throwback Thursday reports for nine years, also researching and scripting the segments.
She also is a 2014 Leadership Bowling Green alumna, was the 2019 Bowling Green Marketer of the Year, was a member of the inaugural class of Under 40 at the Top by the WKU Alumni Association and was named to VIP Bowling Green magazine’s 40 Under 40 list. She serves on the board of Lost River Cave and the Southern Kentucky Hospitalisty Association and is a member of the Elm Street Society for Arts of Southern Kentucky. She has been a member of the WKU Sisterhood, was on the development committee for the Historic PairPark and Train Museum and is a donor to WKU Student Publications.
And she’s a Kentucky Colonel.
Butler is the 28th winner of the Talisman Award, which honors alumni of WKU Student Publications who have made significant contributions in the communications fields and built a reputation for excellence in their work.
You can register to attend the Homecoming Breakfast at this link: https://wkustudentpubs.com/homecoming-2025/