A Bowling Green native and WKU Alum, Telia Butler is the first-ever Downtown Development division head for the City of Bowling Green. With bachelors’ degrees in News/Editorial Journalism and History, she uses her creative storytelling skills and past 10 years of destination tourism marketing experience to promote Downtown BGKY as a destination. Producing over 300 segments to date, Telia has been researching, scripting, and the voice of WNKY Throwback Thursday reports since October 2016. She enjoys highlighting southern Kentucky area history, characters, events, and special stories. In her full-time City of Bowling Green position, she serves as a business resource and event collaborative catalyst, finding ways to better connect Downtown to the Bowling Green community and beyond. Establishing Fountain Row as the City’s entertainment destination center in 2022 was one of the City’s top priorities for this new Downtown Development division, and using that experience to jumpstart more community-wide events and opportunities is what comes next.
Prior to this City position, Telia spent several years in marketing, public relations, media relations, social media management, and sales (often with combined roles) at The Club at Olde Stone, the Marriott franchise hotels in Bowling Green, and at the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. She has won marketing awards for social media, brand development, and advertising at the Kentucky Travel Industry Association’s annual Traverse Awards, the American Marketing Association’s Markies annual event, and the Public Relations Society of America’s Nashville Parthenon Awards. Telia is a Leadership Bowling Green 2014 Graduate, the 2019 Bowling Green Marketer of the Year, and serves the community in non-profit leadership roles: as current President of the American Marketing Association of Bowling Green local chapter, as current Secretary of the Southern Kentucky Hospitality Association, and serves on the Duncan Hines Days steering committee in marketing, fundraising, and hospitality roles.
