Leslie M. Watkins, who retired in 2020 as senior director of planned giving in the WKU Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement, has been chosen as the winner of the Friend of Student Publications Award for 2025.
The award will be presented to Watkins at the WKU Student Publications Centennial Celebration on April 25-26, marking a century of excellence for WKU’s flagship student-run publications, the College Heights Herald and the Talisman.
Watkins, who graduated from WKU with her bachelor and master of arts degrees in English, is honored with the Friend Award because of her dedication to creating an exceptional working environment for students on the staffs pf the College Heights Herald and the Talisman and for the strong relationships she nurtured with Student Publications alumni who continue to generously support one of the nation’s top student media groups.
Watkins was instrumental in helping a committee of alumni starting in 2004 bring together more than $1 million in donations from alumni and friends and funds from the Herald and the Talisman to build the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center, which opened in January 2008. She was at the center of a partnership between alumni and the university that funded and furnished the $1.7 million facility, which has continued to be a point of pride for students and alumni and is still regarded as a model student media facility by programs nationwide.
She also was deeply involved in launching the Student Publications Fellowships program, which places students in professional settings for 10-12 weeks each summer, paid by stipends funded entirely by donations from alumni, friends and partners. Since it was launched in 2012, 81 WKU students have received fellowships, with an additional six working in fellowships this coming summer. In Summer 2024, when we offered 10 fellowships, students were paid stipends totaling $52,000 to cover their living expenses. It is the only program of its kind nationwide, offering WKU’s aspiring journalists unique opportunities to grow under the mentorship of practicing professionals.
Watkins also played a role in establishing several of the 12 endowed scholarships reserved for students who work at Student Publications, including our largest single scholarship endowment, the Paul & Ellen Schuhmann Student Publications Scholarship, which in 2025-26 will on its own fund $6,400 in scholarships and $2,000 toward a fellowship at Tucker Publishing in Evansville, Indiana. All together, our 12 endowed scholarship funds will directly aid students to the tune of $22,000 in 2025-26.
Working with Student Publications was only a slice of what Watkins did before her retirement from WKU. As the senior director of development for Potter College of Arts & Letters, she was a member of the development team that successfully completed WKU’s first and second comprehensive campaigns – Investing in the Spirit, which raised $102 million, and A New Century of Spirit, which raised $202 million for the university. She also secured $1 million professorships in history and biology along with gifts to scholarships and funds for excellence.
After being named senior director of planned giving, Watkins closed multi-million-dollar gifts, including a chair in history and a professorship in theater, and numerous six-figure gifts.
Before becoming a development officer for WKU, Watkins taught English at WKU and Bowling Green High School and was a National Park Service ranger. She is a 2021 graduate of Leadership Bowling Green and was a member of the Bowling Green Junior Women’s Club from 1992-2002. She has served on the boards of Riverview-Hobson House, the Bowling Green-Western Symphony Orchestra and the Head Start Policy Council and has been a volunteer for the Capitol Arts Center, the American Cancer Society and Junior Achievement. Watkins is active in the Community Foundation of Southcentral Kentucky’s Women’s Fund and is a member of State Street United Methodist Church.
In her spare time, Watkins enjoys working New York Times puzzles, cooking, watching Little League games, and international travel with her husband, Chris.
Watkins is the fourth winner of the Friend of Student Publications Award, which honors people who are not alumni of WKU Student Publications, but who have had an exceptional positive effect on the program and its students.
Those wishing to attend the Centennial Weekend celebration, during which the Friend Award will be presented, can register by no later than April 4 at https://alumni.wku.edu/centennialweekend.
WKU Student Publications is celebrating a century of excellence, with the Talisman founded in 1924 as a yearbook and the College Heights Herald publishing its first edition on Jan. 29, 1925. It is one of the most honored student-run media groups in the country, amassing 50 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker awards, the highest honor in student media, since its first in 1978 for Talisman and in 1981 for the College Heights Herald. Since then, the Herald has won 25 Pacemakers; Talisman, 22; Cherry Creative, 1; and Cherry along with Student Publications Advertising, 2.