ANNOUNCING THE 2026 STORYTELLING AWARD HONOREE-DR KATE ROGERS

WIFT TEXAS ANNOUNCES DR. KATE ROGERS AS THE 2026 “CELESTIAL AWARD™ FOR EXCELLENCE IN STORYTELLING” HONOREE

Trailblazing Leader Dr. Kate Rogers will be honored with the Storytelling Award at The Celestial Awards™ Show on January 17th at The World-Class Tobin Center in Downtown San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO, October, 2025 – Women in Film & Television Texas (WIFT Texas) proudly announced that Dr. Kate Rogers is the organization’s 2026 honoree of The Celestial Award™ for Excellence in Storytelling. Dr. Rogers is being recognized for her outstanding career in leading important world-class organizations focused on storytelling, leading education-based organizations, and most recently, stewarding one of the most important historical preservation and storytelling projects in the world: the implementation of the $550 million Alamo Plan. Admired for her trailblazing vision and leadership, Dr. Kate Rogers led the non-profit organization responsible for the daily operations of the Alamo historic site through a pivotal period making an indelible impact that will be remembered for generations to come.

The Celestial Awards™ honor trailblazing women of achievement in the media and entertainment industry, recognizing excellence across all verticals. The awards show will take place on Saturday, January 17th, 2026, at The Tobin Center’s world-class H-E-B Performance Hall in downtown San Antonio, following the Texas Media+Entertainment Summit™ on January 15th and 16th at the Gunter Hotel. Actress and producer Renae Treviño will host the high-profile, entertainment-filled awards show.

“I am honored to accept The Celestial Award for Excellence in Storytelling. I was proud to lead a team committed to telling the full 300-year story of the Alamo. The $550 million Alamo Plan is reclaiming the battle site from urban growth to create a pedestrian-friendly district where visitors can walk in the footsteps of history. By preserving the fragile Alamo Church and Long Barrack, the mission’s only surviving structures, they can continue to stand the test of time,” said Dr. Kate Rogers.

With a career rooted in public service, corporate philanthropy, and educational leadership, Dr. Rogers brings a uniquely collaborative and visionary approach to one of the most scrutinized and significant cultural undertakings in Texas history. Under her direction, the Alamo Trust advanced a mission not just to preserve a historic site, but to activate it as a platform for inclusive education, civic engagement, and global storytelling.

“Storytelling is the foundation of all media and entertainment. When that story is one of the most iconic in global history, it must be told with accuracy, integrity, and cultural awareness. At Women in Film & Television Texas, we recognize that museums and education-focused foundations are not only places of learning — they are media platforms. They are entertainment. They are the origin story of narratives that inform and inspire future films, series, books, performances, and public imagination,” said WIFT Texas CEO & Executive Producer of the Texas Media+Entertainment Summit™ and The Celestial Awards™, Ceslie Armstrong.

“The future Texas Cavaliers Education Center will be a beacon of hands-on learning, where students can grow their own food to learn why early settlers relied on the acequia system, and hold the excavation tools that archaeologists use to discover artifacts that unlock the mysteries of the past. And the world-class Visitor Center and Museum, scheduled to open in Fall 2027, will be a chronological portal through time to show how San Antonio — now the 7th-largest city in the United States — grew up around a site that evolved from an agricultural Spanish Mission and Texas Revolution fortress into a bustling commercial plaza that planted the seeds for San Antonio to become Military City USA. Through comprehensive storytelling, there are even more reasons for generations to come to Remember the Alamo,” said Dr. Kate Rogers, Celestial Award honoree for Excellence in Storytelling.

“Central to Dr. Kate Rogers’ career has been the important work of preserving the storytelling of the past, curating the present, and creating new platforms for future stories to come. The State of Texas, and citizens everywhere, are so fortunate that Dr. Kate Rogers continues to educate, inspire, and elevate all that she endeavors to accomplish,” said Eileen Kret, VP of Women in Film & Television Texas, Executive Producer, The Celestial Awards™.

Before joining the Alamo Trust, Rogers served as the Vice President of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Charles Butt Charitable Foundation. Prior to joining the Charles Butt Foundation, she served as the founding President of the Holdsworth Center, a leadership institute for public school professionals located in Austin, Texas. She also serves on the boards of Alamo Colleges Foundation and Early Matters San Antonio, and was named the 2022 Woman of the Year by the San Antonio Business Journal and included in the list of top 100 Texans to Watch.

“When Dr. Kate Rogers leads, progress happens, and her signature leadership style of combining courage, elegance, and excellence while working across political landscapes, honoring history, and navigating the emotion of storytelling while elevating all she touches with a commitment to truth, transparency, and cultural inclusivity makes her a living Texas treasure,” continued Ceslie Armstrong, CEO of Women in Film & Television Texas.

WIFT Texas celebrates Dr. Kate Rogers’ body of work, representing excellence in 21st-century storytelling, recognizing that the past is not static but alive, available to the public to engage with and create their own living stories to share. She will be formally honored at The Celestial Awards™ on January 17, 2026, at The Tobin Center in downtown San Antonio.